Pollstar (10/08/20) Brown, Eric Renner
YouTube Music and the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) unveiled their first joint venture, the three-day virtual Save Our Stages Festival (#SOSFEST) running from Oct. 16-18. Thirty-five performers from more than 25 iconic independent stages, including Foo Fighters, Kelsea Ballerini, and YG, are slated to perform. Also to be featured are star pairings, like The Roots from New York's Apollo Theater, Reba McEntire from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and Miley Cyrus from Los Angeles' Whiskey a Go Go. YouTube Music and NIVA announced their alliance a month ago, and the festival's coordination effort was pulled off thanks to willing participants, artists' connections to venues in the NIVA network and their histories of promoting content on YouTube. "There's just been this incredible outpouring of support from everywhere for what we're doing," said NIVA treasurer Stephen Sternschein. "I've never experienced anything quite like it. It really speaks to the unity that exists right now in the independent music scene around this issue." YouTube Music and NIVA teamed up with livestreaming production company Big Room, which equipped spaces with technology to reduce the number of onsite crew, while Bulldog Digital Media is providing additional livestreaming support.
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