From 2pm to 2am each Saturday starting 9 May 2020, acclaimed musicians from multiple genres, from India and abroad, are performing live, viewed by audiences on Instagram. From Grammy winner Ricky Tej to multi-faceted master of folk Raghu Dixit, the list or performers at the CommonRoots virtual music festival is long and varied. Audiences watch for free, but are informed that the platform allows them to support charities. They can contribute to daily wage workers through Give India, to artists and researchers through India Foundation for the Arts, or towards the rescue, treatment and sanctuary of stray dogs through The Voice of Stray Dogs.
In an e-mailed interview, Bonny Fernandes, Co-founder of Common Roots explains the birth of the festival and shares a perspective on the future of live events post the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The event is the brainchild of Spark Magic Experiences, an event and experiential marketing agency run by Fernandes and Common Roots Co-founder Mustafa Parvez.
Parvez (top left) and Fernandes
How did the concept of Common Roots come about and how long did it take to crystallise into its final form?
Bonny Fernandes: With the COVID crisis only gaining momentum, there was a deep desire to help the COVID-hit sections of society. While we did not have the financial means to assist all of them, we were still very concerned and wanted to do a lot more. And instead of a one-time donation to one such group, we felt our experience and skills could be put to better use to gather support for a bigger impact than our individual contributions.
From an audience perspective, we also saw and felt the huge disconnect among general people with a lot of their normal routines disrupted and lack of space and connection now being the norm. Entertainment options were also limited and did not serve as a good escape for everyone’s taste. Binge-watching of online shows was anyway done before COVID. I do not know anyone who hasn’t tired of it now; re-runs of other TV shows and Ramayana did not work across the board; Bollywood music shows is not everyone’s cup of tea, at least not for all-the-time entertainment.
From an event and experiential background, we noticed musicians (except for celebrities, especially Bollywood) could not reach a wider audience and were restricted to a few and in fragmented ways. Musicians also come alive when they have the audiences that they play for. We also learnt from some of them that they wished they could have done more, but were themselves impacted by cancelled shows and other factors.
In thinking of a win-win situation for all three groups, Common Roots, the platform, was born as an attempt to provide relief to all concerned with something in it for everyone. Common Roots, as the name suggests, is a suggestion to the community that despite all our differences and choices, music can provide relief for all.
Common Roots supports daily wage workers through GiveIndia, supports artists and arts through India Foundation of Arts, and supports rescued and stray dogs through The Voice of Stray Dogs. Using music to create a sense of community and relief, we were hoping the people will feel good and also spread that goodness with the NGOs.
Common Roots provides a breather to people with a feel of a festival, playing on the binge-watching aspect with 12 hours. It address attention deficit by keeping shows limited to 20 to 30 minutes for each artiste, also moving them from one artiste’s Instagram handle to another and providing a discovery mechanism of new music and genres just like a festival would. It gives them the option to watch it on mobile as well as a computer/TV to make it a group or an individual experience.
Common Roots keeps all musicians on one level playing field with 20 to 30 minutes for all. Because the online experience would also not be as rich and immersive, the time slot allotted would be enough to establish the connect and entertainment without diluting it. Also, while Common Roots provides a platform to consolidate all their support, expertise and time for the benefit of the audiences and the causes, it is also a medium to express their art and self-care in these tough times. As a way to reciprocate for their generosity, we are pushing traffic to their handles and possibly increasing traffic and followers too. Give love, get love back.
There are multiple virtual events including some in the music genre. How will this stand out?
Common Roots:
- Is a 12-hour non-stop festival
- Representing all genres on one platform
- Celebrating all artistes and genres
- Musicians from abroad and not just India
- All coming together for a cause without borders or prejudice to taste in music
- Not a one-time support charity event but across four weekends
- Supports three charities and not linked to one
- Diversity that is celebrated and demonstrated by audiences, musicians and donation partners
- Goes from one artiste handle to another (this could change to deal with audience aggregation issues)
Do you also see this as a way to introduce music events to newer audiences? And create a geography-agnostic platform? What is the geographic reach you expect? And what are the audience numbers you expect?
Since the charities and support is for Indians, this would primarily be relevant to Indian audiences. However, the artistes performing are from Zimbabwe, Australia, Singapore, France, US, UK and many more. And not all are Indian-origin.
It is difficult to predict audience numbers for couple of reasons.
- Since we have no sponsors, the organic reach is limited to the support the musicians and the NGOs provide ,apart from our own efforts
- The intense surge of other online entertainment options from music, comedy and what not also takes away crowds from our event
- Saturday is the peak day for all such activities as well as a day to rest from the increased WFH pressures, so that adds to the challenge in a way
The event is free to view, with donors urged to support charities. Kindly explain the rationale.
Common Roots as the name suggests is a relief for all and thus, we never wanted this to be restricted. It is a ‘Social Cause Music Festival’ and ticketing would be restrictive and destructive of that intent.
Among performers is Grammy winner Ricky Tej
“COMMON ROOTS AS THE NAME SUGGESTS IS A RELIEF FOR ALL AND THUS, WE NEVER WANTED THIS TO BE RESTRICTED. IT IS A ‘SOCIAL CAUSE MUSIC FESTIVAL’ AND TICKETING WOULD BE RESTRICTIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE OF THAT INTENT.”
Indian audiences are not ready to pay for online entertainment and we have all gone through our journey with the Netflix’ and Amazon Primes to know that better.
We are using music to create a sense of community and relief and thus hoping the people will feel good and also spread that goodness with the NGOs. We are using music for what it delivers as a subtle persuading factor as against a celebrity appeal or some flashy gimmick.
How has the response from brands been? What amount is expected to go from this towards charity?
We did not garner any support for certain reasons:
- They have supported other causes and are facing a fatigue of sorts
- They feel the current effort cannibalises their own efforts
- They do not see value in this project as there is not much appeal, as it is not linked to mainline entertainment or celebs (think sponsoring cricket vs support for other sports)
- They have their own crises to deal with now that business has been impacted
We have not tried to debate them as the intent was social cause support and not to tutor brands on how they should respond in crises while being part of a community.
The stated target is Rs. 5 lakh towards those whose livelihoods have been affected (through GiveIndia). What is the total amount you expect to generate?
We are hoping we reach that target for Giveindia by the end of May. VOSD and IFA also have targets but those are much smaller than the one for GiveIndia.
It is anybody’s guess. But by when you do you see live on-ground events coming back in India? What should the steps and precautions be, when they return?
We believe in being socially responsible and feel on-ground events should not be allowed to happen until we have flattened the curve or have a vaccine. We know what happened in the US with Spanish Flu in 1918 and how other cities paid a dear price while Saint Louis managed to arrest the curve.
And as we have seen not just in India but abroad too, mankind will break almost every rule to socialise in times like this, regardless of the implications. So realistically, do expect events to start happening on ground as early as three months from now.
If we were to do so, we would ensure many different ways to make it happen, but we’re not sure how feasible it would be in terms of costs and recouping them.
Are you seeing the rise of virtual events in the lockdown as an agency? Could this be a larger revenue stream post the lockdown?
This indeed will bring about the true dawn of the virtual century. Virtual events were rising anyway but now it is something we cannot ignore at all. There will also be a lot of data to collect on consumer behaviour and thus tailor something that could be monetised because free virtual events are not sustainable for the industry and stakeholders. Everyone is equally affected and artistes and musicians and the related support industry are more deeply affected than others. There would also be a rise in adoption of technologies such as AR and VR with online events. However, how it will all pan out remains to be seen. For now a lot of the efforts are to either support causes or bridge gaps due to lack of entertainment options.