Artistes like Lucky Ali and Nucleya drew as many as 65,000 music fans to the virtual edition of NH7 Weekender, said Gunjan Arya, CEO, Only Much Louder (OML), the organiser of the music festival.
The three-day festival, which took place between December 4-6, took the online route for the first time in 10 years in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Arya did not share any numbers regarding unique buyers during the festival.
"Day one was free and tickets were sold on day two and three. We haven't yet received data regarding how many tickets were sold. But we sold many tickets in the last two days of the festival thanks to word of mouth. On the last day, while there is no exact data, we may have sold more than 3,000 tickets," she said.
"On the last day, when The Lumineers (American folk rock band) went online we had 21,000 people watching at the same time. However, these were concurrent viewers and not unique users," added Arya.
The festival registered an average watch time of 108 minutes.
In addition, the various features that were introduced in the virtual edition of NH7 Weekender also saw traction, said Arya.
Take the example of the private watch party, a feature which lets the viewers create their own private video group where they can share their experience of the online event live with their friends.
Arya said as many as 26,000 private watch parties were hosted during the event.
Another feature called festival chat saw 170,000 messages being exchange during the festival.
Along with new features, the programming was also unique for the virtual edition of the music festival. Artistes had shot their shows in different ways.
"Vidya Vox had rented a stage setup and had a big sound production for her show. Yung Raja (Singaporean hip hop artiste) shot on the streets of Singapore. Raja Kumari did the same in Los Angeles. On the other hand, artistes like Prateek Kuhad had sets that were like private concerts. Each set was shot in a different way. In addition, everything was shot in 4k (4K video has high definition that is four times higher than the resolution of 108p HD video)."
Music festivals this year have adapted to the online medium with virtual avatars. Even Sunburn, one of the biggest music festivals in India, will be going online because of the pandemic.
The virtual version of Sunburn, which will take place on December 27-29, will offer 3D experience to its viewers.
While digital events are not viable, events industry is not left with much choice. Experts say that companies in the live events space that have adapted to digital events are only able to sustain without showing any profits.
Earlier this year, the Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) had estimated the events industry in India to take a Rs 1 lakh crore hit due to cancellations or delays of big events in the wake of the pandemic.
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