Atlanta Jazz Festival – Virtual Concert Series

Media Promotion for Live Online Concert Series

Challenge 
The 43^rd annual Atlanta Jazz Festival, traditionally held on Saturday and Sunday over Memorial Day weekend, was canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020. The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA), which produces the Festival, also typically schedules 31 Days of Jazz events across the city leading up to Festival weekend as part of its mission to expose and entertain a diverse audience of Jazz aficionados, young Jazz enthusiasts and aspiring musicians to the rich heritage and variety of Jazz as an authentic form of American music. With a state mandate against events of more than 10 people, those events were also canceled.

Solution
OCA shifted plans and moved the live events to an online virtual concert series called Atlanta Jazz Festival Sessions. Each night, from May 1 – 31 at 9 p.m., the virtual concerts appeared on the Atlanta Jazz Festival Facebook, and the following day were archived on the Atlanta Jazz Festival website.

OCA selected a specially curated list of exceptionally talented local singers, musicians and bands to record 30-minute sessions resulting in unique virtual music experiences showcasing a mastery of jazz. Most performances were recorded locally at the Atlanta Music Project, where the studio and equipment were wiped between recordings. A handful of performances were remotely recorded from as far away as South Africa. The video recordings were posted at 9 p.m. each night on the Atlanta Jazz Festival’s Facebook page, and then were available on the official Atlanta Jazz Festival website the next day.

In order to maximize viewership and engagement, c21 updated its media list to include national Jazz publications and music influencers to help spread the word that one of the country’s largest free jazz festivals would be accessible to the world for a month of free performances by top jazz musicians and singers. c21 prepared a press release announcing the switch from 31 Days of Jazz live events to virtual ones, and then each week distributed a press release announcing the weekly line-up of incredible performances. After conducting follow-up to media, c21 arranged interviews of various artists and scheduled online calendar announcements to promote the performances of talented jazz artists like Groove Centric, Anonymous da Band, Russell Gunn, Mose Davis, Joe Gransden with Kenny Banks, Sr. and many more. The OCA created social media graphics and posted on the Jazz Fest social channels.