Isol-Aid (pitched as an Instagram Live Music Festival
) is a stay-at-home festival initiative aiming to assist the Australian music industry during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
The first concert featured 72 artists and took place from 12 noon to 12 midnight on 21–22 March 2020. Artists' live-streamed their 20-minute performance via their
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
accounts from wherever they were practising self-distancing.
A second festival occurred on 28–29 March 2020, featuring 74 artists and a third on 4–5 April 2020.
In July 2021, Isol-Aid launched ''Homegrown'', a new program providing creative and financial support to emerging bands across Australia and New Zealand. ''Homegrown'' was pitched as a 16-week program whereby "emerging local acts are invited to perform 30-minute sets alongside established artists as part of Isol-Aid's online festival." The first event took place on 14 July 2021.
On 1 September 2021, Isol-Aid announced ''Australian Musicians for Afghanistan'', as eight-hour livestream concert to help raise funds for
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, with all money raised from the event being donated to the Australian-based aid organisation
Mahboba's Promise
Mahboba's Promise is an Australian non-profit organisation dedicated to helping the women and the large number of orphaned children of Afghanistan. It is one of the few non-governmental organisations operational in that war-torn nation entirely f ...
. The event took place on 2 September 2021.
At the
2021 Music Victoria Awards
The 2021 Music Victoria Awards were the 16th Annual Music Victoria Awards. The ceremony took place on 9 December 2021 at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
The 2021 awards featured a number of changes, including a brand new category for Best Pop Act ...
, Isol-Aid won Best Festival.
Background
Isol-Aid is an online music festival and community, profiling musicians – who would otherwise have had shows, launches, tours and other appearances planned – to create content and stream live and online to an audience. The festival was created in the days after the
coronavirus pandemic reached Australia, when it became immediately clear that musicians and their teams would be heavily impacted by the cancellation of their shows and tours.
The online festival was free to watch, but viewers were asked to support the artists if they could saying "whatever you donate will go directly to the Isol-Aid artists and their teams."
An Isol-Aid statement added "If they are in the financial position to do so, viewers are encouraged to buy music and merch from the artists' Bandcamp and Patreon pages,
ndtheir websites."
Awards and nominations
Music Victoria Awards
The
Music Victoria Awards
The Music Victoria Awards (previously known as The Age EG Awards and The Age Music Victoria Awards) are an annual awards night celebrating music from the Australian state of Victoria. They commenced in 2006 and are awarded in Melbourne Music W ...
, are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. Best Festival commenced in 2016.
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2020
The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
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2021
Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
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References
External links
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2020 in Australian music
2020 music festivals
2021 in Australian music
2021 music festivals
March 2020 in Australia
Benefit concerts in Australia
Music festivals in Australia
COVID-19 pandemic benefit concerts