{"id":16910,"date":"2020-06-17T10:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T17:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000011806"},"modified":"2020-06-17T10:01:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T17:01:32","slug":"summer-without-live-music-sam-organizers-consider-a-digital-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/summer-without-live-music-sam-organizers-consider-a-digital-alternative","title":{"rendered":"Summer without live music: SAM organizers consider a digital alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Streamed events and recorded videos cannot replace live music. The atmosphere and energy of a live show\u2014feeling the music in your bones, performers feeding off the crowd\u2019s energy, the crowd, in turn, feeding off what reverberates onstage\u2014simply doesn\u2019t translate through a computer or cellphone screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, to go to a live show is the cheapest vacation I ever get,\u201d said Rand Foster, owner of Fingerprints Music. \u201cIt just, you know, pushes a reset button, especially in times of stress. There is a lot of stress consuming our brainpower right now and I think if we had live music, it would be an outlet, an escape from it. It\u2019s what I miss most in this COVID world we\u2019re living in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foster is the co-founder of the Summer and Music (SAM) event series which has brought free, live music to Downtown Long Beach the last 11 summers. The music series, which would normally kick off in late June and include events over the next three months, culminating with what has become Long Beach\u2019s annual farewell-to-summer event, Buskerfest, in August, was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had big plans,\u201d Foster said. \u201cWe make plans and God laughs, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time for a new plan, one involving either a live-streamed or digital alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, we are having conversations about something we can do and can we do it in a way that\u2019s respectful to what we\u2019ve done,\u201d Foster said. \u201cIf we come at it with the right approach, I think it can be meaningful. There are things we can do in a digital space that we can\u2019t do in a live space.\u201d<\/p>\n

With discussions in the early stages, Foster could not give details on what a digital SAM may look or sound like but said he envisions something that highlights the city\u2014”a digital postcard to Long Beach\u201d\u2014and includes short films as well as utilizing other artistic mediums not usually featured in SAM events.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gemma Castro serenades the crowd of spectators as she leaves the stage and gets close to the audience at the 11th annual Buskerfest in Downtown Long Beach Saturday, September 7, 2019. Photo by Gabriela Mungarro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While acknowledging that any digital event would be a one-off placeholder, Foster also said if the group can pull together a successful digital event he would like to see it continue in the future as an extension of traditional SAM programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are opportunities here,\u201d he said. \u201cSAM has always been a celebration of Long Beach, not just of the music in the moment but the bigger collective. This could be a really nice showcase of Long Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The early success of SAM led to the creation of numerous downtown events, including the Downtown Long Beach Alliance\u2019s “Live After 5\u201d music series, featuring a free event every third Thursday at rotating locations. SAM was also the forerunner to non-music events such as Tastes of Downtown and the weeklong POW! WOW! mural festival. Coronavirus also claimed those events, this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could talk about a number of different events that have taken place in and around the downtown, but 12 years ago, none of that existed,\u201d said Kraig Kojian, president and CEO of the alliance, which was integral in the development of SAM. \u201cWe enjoy bringing music to the downtown\u2014it has helped downtown find its voice. I hope we\u2019re able to [present] SAM in some way, shape or form. It would help bring the community back together. Music is a universal language and God knows we need that today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Streamed events and recorded videos cannot replace live music. The atmosphere and energy of a live show\u2014feeling the music in your bones, performers feeding off the crowd\u2019s energy, the crowd, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":71092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18750,421],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[18751],"class_list":["post-16910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-covid-19","tag-summer-and-music","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}