Silicon Alleys: Shelter-in-Place Takes the 'Street' Out of SoFA Street Fair—But the Show Will Go On
“As the world falls apart, the SoFA Street Fair will go on. I'm paraphrasing, but those were the words of festival organizer Fil Maresca, when we recently spoke over the phone about his plans to migrate the April 26 festival online. Believe it or not, there could be yet another live music revolution coming to the corner of First and San Salvador, although no one will actually be there in person. The revolution will be virtual.
During the COVID-19 era, much of downtown San Jose is empty, with bars, restaurants and public events shut down until safer days emerge. Here's what would normally unfold this Sunday: The spring version of the SoFA Street Fair would include a smattering of outdoor and indoor stages, above ground and below ground, all over the immediate area. Food trucks, beer vendors and artisans would fill the streets. Fans young and old would scramble from stage to stage in search of new sounds. Some would plan it all out in advance via a scheduling app while others would take a more impromptu random approach, tripping around to see what they could discover. And the bands that didn't get booked would bitch about it all year long.
Last month, Maresca was in Manhattan when the order to cancel all events over 1,000 people came across the wire. As he returned to San Jose in mid-March and started scheming with the production team, it became obvious that the entire event would need to migrate online. Many bands and performers were already at least somewhat familiar with livestreaming over various platforms. So it made sense to innovate a way to showcase all the musicians in their homes. Instead of organizing a street festival, the team would curate a similar schedule, but point fans to various home cams where the bands would stream out of their own environments, all day, from 2-9pm.”
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