Wide Days is taking the music, friendship and fun online in the wake of Covid-19

The Wide Days virtual convention will feature pre-recorded showcases from bands including Swim School PIC: Jannica Honey

In these days of cautious Covid rapprochement, how does the natural born party host bring people together? That is the question which Olaf Furniss, founder of the Wide Days music convention and co-writer of Scotland on Sunday’s Under the Radar column, is wrangling with ahead of this week’s first ever virtual edition of Wide Days.

Furniss has been an enthusiastic facilitator in Scotland’s music community since setting up the Born to Be Wide networking nights in Edinburgh in 2004. A few years later, he began hosting panels and seminars with a social afterwards and, by 2010, this had birthed a full-blown music industry convention.

“The idea was to move the music industry conversation on,” says Furniss. “Back then, you could go to pretty much any event and it would be five old geezers moaning about the fact that people weren’t buying CDs anymore. The content was pretty samey and most Scottish events wouldn’t look further than a Glasgow postcode for their speakers. I basically set up the type of convention that I would like to attend myself.”

One Nine are also on the Wide Days bill PIC: Jannica Honey

This meant working towards a gender balanced line-up as well as inviting younger speakers and attendees. “I’ve always felt the veterans of the industry have something to learn from the young team who are coming to the event,” says Furniss. “People with a fresh perspective on the industry.”

From the outset, Wide Days was characterised by a more democratic mingling of musicians and industry executives, helped along by a second day of socialising including showcase gigs curated by different festivals, whisky tastings and a coach tour of Edinburgh conducted by the Blue Badge-certificated Furniss.

It is this community aspect which keeps delegates returning year after year – delegates such as top flight music manager and former Motown man Keith Harris, who reckons “the thing that sets Wide Days apart is the sense of fun that runs through the whole event.”

Nicky Carder, the membership manager at the Ivors Academy, agrees that the community fostered by the convention is its greatest asset. “It’s a very friendly and supportive group of people,” she says. “You always leave with new industry contacts as well as new friends.”

Beverley Whitrick, who effectively launched the Music Venue Trust at Wide Days in 2014, concurs. “Connections made there have yielded one charity trustee, two patrons, a photographer and writer commissioned for MVT work, several speaking engagements and a bunch of friends,” she says.

“Meeting people is super important and I think we’ve always done that better than nearly any other event,” says Furniss, who hopes to carry that USP over to this year’s enforced virtual edition. “I’m going to miss physically hanging out, taking people around my city, having a beer with someone during the shows. But that’s not happening so there’s no point me getting bothered about it. You just have to reskill and look at what else we can do.”

Furniss and his team initially postponed the event in April until July before taking the decision to go online, with all the logistical challenges that entails. “There are certain things in the physical world we think should apply in the virtual world,” he says, “and that’s been at the front of my mind to ensure it’s a better user experience.”

Furniss already has form in dealing with seat-of-the-pants situations – the first Wide Days was pulled together in seven weeks with a last minute switch of venue. Even so, he has managed to preserve most of this year’s panel content. In some ways, it’s easier for speakers to contribute from their own homes and Furniss anticipates an international audience, liberated from the cost and time constraints of travelling to the event – though transatlantic delegates will have to be committed early risers to get the most out of the programme.

This willingness to adapt tallies with the unavoidable theme of this year’s event – addressing the challenges posed to the music industry by the Covid pandemic but more importantly the opportunities presented by the “new normal”.

“Not to minimise the tremendous upheaval that a lot of people are facing in the industry,” says Furniss, “but at the same time there’s so many cool, imaginative things going on, so from the outset we said let’s make this programme about being pro-active, creating ways of keeping things going and giving people some fresh ideas.”

For Carder at the Ivors Academy, this has meant setting up the Keep Music Alive campaign to improve the rates musicians are paid from streaming. The Music Venue Trust have successfully lobbied via their #SaveOurVenues campaign for a funding package to ease the financial pain for grassroots venues – “the drivers of the ecosystem,” says Whitrock.

“The conversation has been focused on people that can no longer go to gigs,” says Furniss. “That’s understandable. I’m not under any illusion that we’re going to get back to ‘normal’ in the next year. The industry as a whole has to look at how it can keep active while live entertainment is severely curtailed. That does need state support and assistance but at the same time we should also be looking at practical stuff that could be emulated.”

Consequently, this year’s seminars major on supporting musicians through the crisis, with panel discussions on everything from getting your online data in order to mental health through martial arts, a case study of Laura Marling’s successful streamed concert at London’s Union Chapel and tips on how to set up, market and get paid for streaming gigs – as well as a broadcast line-up of electronic jazz curated by the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and two free online showcase events including Edinburgh indie pop four-piece Swim School and multi-instrumentalist Kapil Seshasayee and hip-hop duo Billy Got Waves x Joell.

Furniss will be taking a particular interest in the Reshaping the Industry panel. “There’s a view that the industry needs a bailout to survive,” he says. “I think it should be broader than that. The government should be thinking ‘how can music be part of the recovery?’ It’s a subtle but important distinction. Look at what they did in the Great Depression in the States, where they put musicians on the state payroll to go out and play music in communities and teach kids music, something like what the Feisean movement already does. That is an amazing model, people should know about it. Music is not a charity case, it’s part of the fabric of society and plays a very important role. There’s opportunities there.”

Wide Days takes place online from 22-25 July. More info at www.widedays.com

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