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ATHENS -- WOUB Public Media at Ohio University is helping produce the online presentation of the 2020 Nelsonville Music Festival.
The Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival will stream on the festival's YouTube channel at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Stuart's Opera House is presenting the festival and the event will serve as a fundraiser for the opera house. While there are no tickets needed for admission and the event is free to all, donations are encouraged.
Each night will feature a different lineup of performers including CAAMP, Mandolin Orange, Hot Tuna, Shovels & Rope, Todd Snider, Haley Heynderickx, Bedouine, Joan Shelley, Tre Burt, Vieux Farka Toure, Cedric Burnside, Lydia Loveless, Snarls, Counterfeit Madison, Steve Poltz, Leggy, Hubby Jenkins, Angela Perley, Lisa Bella Donna, Ernie Johnson From Detroit, Water Witches, The D-Rays, Caitlin Kraus and the Stuart's Afterschool Music Program. Each artist will perform a mini set, which will vary in length from one and five songs.
WOUB Audio Supervisor Adam Rich and WOUB producer and director Evan Shaw are providing post-production on the performances.
"When we learned this year's event was cancelled, we were truly disappointed. WOUB has worked with the festival for the last several years, and it's always something I look forward to," Rich said. "When we were asked to help continue the event in a different way, we were very excited to do our part to keep this annual tradition going during this unusual time."
Music and entertainment have been hit hard by this pandemic and live performances are unsafe, Shaw said.
"Helping the Nelsonville Music Festival continue in a way that is safe for the artists and those watching made a lot of sense to me," he said.
WOUB's Arts and Culture Reporter Emily Votaw has been overseeing the Ohio University student promotions and publicity team. Votaw is guiding them on how to set up interviews with performing artists, and then recording and editing the interviews remotely.
The interviews are being aired on WOUB FM and placed on the woub.org culture page.
"I'm also gathering all the information about the songs performed during the sets and conducting my own interviews with headliners," Votaw said. "It's been a really fun experience."
Josh Antonuccio, Ohio University Scripps College of Communication media arts and studies director, is executive producer for the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival, overseeing the WOUB team in post-production and managing the on-ground production.
"The WOUB team has been invaluable to the VNMF production process and have delivered both excellence and innovation in the challenging environment of the pandemic," Antonuccio said. "We've put together an incredible event, with two nights of performances featuring over 25 artists and showcasing Ohio artists in special locations from across the region."
To help with the loss of jobs and internships this summer due to COVID, the Scripps College of Communication created paid positions for recent graduates and students to work across multiple areas in the production, including audio and video production, artist management, logistics and publicity.