Ahead of the Shambala Digital Weekender coming this August bank holiday weekend, organisers have announced: “We’re having a party and Facebook’s not invited”.
Having seen the virtual events of other independent festivals ‘scourged’ by fake Facebook pages, which often ask fans to pay for access to free livestreams, Shambala will be streaming exclusively on their Youtube channel and on their own platform, AiDU.tv – that’s short for Adventures in Digital Utopia!
Making the announcement this afternoon, organisers said: “Lockdown has forced festivals online for the time being and we’ve been taking lockdown as a chance to explore our own ethical, independent digital platforms further. We’ve seen scammers targeting fellow festivals on behemoth social media platforms with a scourge of fake event pages and fake pay-to-watch livestreams. We want the weekend to be as much our own as possible, so streaming it on Facebook doesn’t sit right.
“Instead we’ll only be streaming our Shambala Digital Weekender via AiDU and on Youtube, with a Party-In-Your-Pocket hosted on our block-chain built App. This is to keep you scam safe, ad-free and in the moment – wherever you join us from. No corporate nonsense, no big data, and in support of the #StopHateForProfit campaign.
“Remember, any pay-to-view livestream links you see on Facebook are not ours. Our digital weekend event will be FREE to watch for all, and will not require anybody to enter any card details, anywhere.”
Despite holding on to “any faint glimmer of hope for as long as possible”, organisers were finally forced to cancel this year’s physical festival back in May.
Image credits:
Main: George Harrison / Shambala Festival PR
Stage: Ania Shrimpton / Shambala Festival PR
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