Our Journey Into the World of Live Streaming
These uncertain times have really thrown a wrench into everyone’s plans. For us at Coalesce, it meant cancelling multiple events we had lined up through the year. This was a huge bummer for everyone involved as we were all looking forward to the various clubs and desert takeovers we had planned. Although we weren’t able to come together physically as we intended, we took to the internet to continue our connectivity with the community.
Outside of Coalesce, our Mayor Forest Bump and Sheriff J.Gill already had their own prior experience with live streaming. J.Gill was one of the founders of Re|flections which provides an online platform for underground artists, much like we do with Coalesce in the desert. Forest Bump also helps out at Re|flections with the experience he’s gained helping run live streams at Focus OC, so between the both of them we had all we needed to make the transition from the desert to online.
Using our combined skills and resources, we made Coalesce’s inevitable transition to Twitch with the intention of continuing to build our platform for up-and-coming underground artists. We had some pop-up streams to test the waters with no announcements, but once we realized we were more than capable and had a way to bring our community back together again, we took off full speed ahead. We threw our first virtual gathering, Coalesce From Home, with all the Coalesce DJ’s that were livestream ready and saw the energy light up in the chatroom like a barrel fire.
With the continued uncertainties of when our state will open back up, the only thing we are guaranteed is this outlet for bringing everyone together. Even once things begin to open up, the presence of virtual gatherings and live streaming will continue on. We intend to weave every livestream-capable DJ that has ever played at Coalesce into our virtual master plan to honor the intentions the gathering was born from. Although there is no clear sight of when quarantine will be over, we can ensure you that we’ll continue to provide a sense of community through our Coalesce livestream productions.
