Down on the Farm with O’Summer!
Music! Art! Beer! Goats! (What more could you ask for?)
Indie-arts promoter Big Leap Collective kicked off its first-ever hybrid in-person/virtual music and art festival on Saturday, August 14, 2021, at The New Farm, a cultural community center shared with farm animals and native plants in San Francisco’s Bayview–Hunters Point neighborhood. The event was also simulcast on Twitch for virtual attendees.
Titled O’Summer, the admission-free event was made possible by a FOSOTA alumni grant in recognition of the event’s mission-aligned focus on accessibility, inclusion, and equity in the arts.
SFGate reporter Michelle Robertson described the scene:
. . . people — young, old, techie, hippie — all came together to listen to more than 10 bands rocking out on the covered, outdoor stage. Chickens ran among the audience’s feet. Goats bleated in off-kilter time with the throng of guitars and the beating of the drums.
In planning O’Summer as a hybrid event, Big Leap Collective founder and Asawa SOTA alum Ellie Stokes (Musical Theater 2020) applied what she learned from staging virtual events during the pandemic: “Prior to COVID, I didn’t realize just how inaccessible the live events scene can be.” She went on to cite some issues — financial barriers, disabilities, health and medical concerns, geographic constraints — that offering virtual attendance can address.
At the close of the fun-filled day, Ellie thanked all the guests — both in-person and virtual — for “bringing the party safely and inclusively amidst a pandemic.”
