The ongoing global pandemic has caused disruption on a scale probably never seen before. Large gatherings of people which would have seemed normal and par for the course are now impossible, due to social distancing needs as well as government restrictions to try and control the spread of the virus. This has had a huge impact on all events where people gather in large numbers. Sports, for example, has been one of the worst-affected. There were virtually no sporting events all across the world for three to four months earlier this year. Top-level tournaments were affected due to this. The Olympics had to be moved to next year, as did football’s European Championship tournament. Wimbledon, perhaps the most prestigious of the four tennis Grand Slams, was cancelled, for the first time since the Second World War. Various football leagues were suspended, and only some could resume their seasons a little later. All of the events that did happen at a later time took place in the absence of fans in stadiums and arenas, and with strict bio-secure environments created to allow those events to go ahead.
This situation is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, and while sports events are at least taking place, that is not the case for other events where people usually gather in large numbers. Movie theaters are largely closed globally, for example, while music concerts have had to be postponed. Many concerts and performances have had to go online during this time, and there was another example of this recently in the case of the Celtic Connections Festival. The festival, which takes place every January and February in Glasgow, Scotland, has announced that the 2021 edition will be an online concert. This will be a blow to both artists and fans, but it is a necessary step for the concert to take place in any form at all during the current situation. Celtic Connections is a folk and traditional music festival that provides a platform to traditional artists from all over the UK, Ireland and elsewhere. It is being held in Glasgow since the first edition in 1994, and one of its core features is the Education Programme, under which thousands of school children were allowed to attend concerts in the morning free of charge, featuring a range of music from blues to spiritual music. The Young Tradition and New Voices series of concerts allow new and rising talent to be given opportunities to showcase their music in front of thousands of fans, while the Celtic Connections Festival Club, which runs into the early hours of the morning after the end of the concerts every night, is renowned for impromptu performances and collaborations between artists.
While it will be impossible to replicate all of this in an online format, it is a necessary step for the festival to exist in some form, as over 100,000 people attend it, and that is too great a number to host in these times without risking a major outbreak. The digital strategy used by the festival is also in keeping with the general trend over this year, where online forms of entertainment have gained in popularity due to the pandemic. Gaming, for example, has seen a lot of growth, and one of the sectors within it that has been particularly popular is online gambling. Websites offering online casino games have seen a rise in the number of new members, and that is largely down to the fact that land-based casinos have been closed globally, which has left gambling fans without too many options to pursue their hobby. Thus, other online forms of entertainment have also done well, such as streaming, while there were many musicians who were putting out online concerts during lockdown. The Celtic Connections Festival could thus be quite a success even in its new digital format.
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