In the pre-coronavirus world, dozens of bands would be hitting stages around downtown San Jose’s South First Street for the music-and-art-filled SoFA Street Fair on April 26. But that’s not the world we live in anymore, so the event has transformed itself into the SoFA Music Festival, an online edition tailor-made for our sheltered in place lives.
“We’re trying to bring as much of the SoFA Street Fair experience as we can into the virtual world,” organizer Fil Maresca said. If all goes well, the biggest difference, Maresca says, is that people will be on their sofas at home instead of the comfortable couches that line South First Street during the regular fest.
Instead of 15 stages, there will be 15 channels hosting live performances from 2 to 9 p.m. Because of shelter-in-place rules, most of the shows will be solo acts, but some bands have been creatively figuring out how to combine their talents over video conferencing (or in one case, two bandmates also happen to be roommates, which makes collaboration easier).
The lineup — still in progress — includes singer-songwriter Socorra, rock band Ashes Fallen, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Casey Wickstrom and rock/soul/funk band Sweet HayaH. And because it’s all happening online, the bandlist isn’t limited to acts based in the San Jose area.
There will be an art component curated by Local Color, bands will be selling T-shirts, CDs and other merchandise online, and there even will be virtual tip jars so audiences can help support the musicians — most of whom have lost out on weeks, if not months, of gigs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “What we’ve been seeing is that people who are stuck at home and enjoying music have been fairly generous,” Maresca said. “If you’re enjoying what you’re hearing, it’s easy to donate.”
Maresca said transitioning the festival from in-person to online has been a whirlwind. At one point, he had booked an indoor stage and had plans for an outdoor stage where bands could play without audiences and be streamed online. But those plans were dashed when the shelter-in-place orders were extended to May 3. “This is a very ‘show must go on’ kind of idea, and it may be imperfect, but I think people understand that we’re all learning here,” Maresca said.
You can get more information and stay updated on the festival’s schedule and offerings at www.sofamusicfestival.com.
CITY LIGHTS GOES DIGITAL: With its IRL stage sitting empty, City Lights Theater Company is venturing online for a new program called The Next Stage, which showcases original content created by its community of artists livestreamed on Facebook. The Next Stage has its debut April 10 with the reading of the first part of actor-playwright Max Tachis‘ new play, “From the Files of: Denmark Metro.” It’s a comedy about what the hapless members of the Denmark metropolitan police department was up to during all the killing that took place in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
In addition to Tachis, the actors reading include Maria Giere Marquis and Roneet Aliza Rahamim, who is also Tachis’ wife. The next two parts — each about 30 minutes — will be read April 17 and April 24. Don’t worry if you missed the first part, as recordings are available on Facebook and YouTube. Future programs include New York dance teacher Shannon Stowe conducting a jazz dance workshop May 1 and singer-songwriter Ren Geisick performing May 8.
CARING IN CAMPBELL: A new initiative called the Downtown Campbell Survival Project aims to support the shops and restaurants that turned the Orchard City’s downtown into a major destination over the past decade and more. The downtown business association is giving away gift cards and other prizes to people who donate to the effort’s GoFundMe campaign, order food from a downtown Campbell restaurant, or even just share their social media posts with the tag #VivaDTC. Find out how you can get entries into the monthly drawings at www.downtowncampbell.com/vivadtc.