A HND Sound Production student turned the dial up to 11 to create an online music festival and raise money for a mental health charity recently.
Claire McFarlane (28) from Falkirk created ‘Virtual Groove’ as part of her Professional Development Project (PDP) course unit and managed to stage an online festival for 10 musical acts in early April (Friday 9April from 4.30pm-after midnight), which proved very popular.
Performers on the bill were: Sister Gavin and the Gator, David Tonner, Laura Begley, James Lafferty, Shauny Sherman, Liam McGrandles, Scott Ashworth, Scott Forsyth, Ian Whitfield and Mikey Purcell (DJ set).
Claire, who after completing her HND hopes to move on to the Glasgow School of Art to continue here Sound Production education at degree level, said: “We were set the task in our Professional Development Project, to come up with music or sound idea.
“As I had always wanted to organise a live music event or festival. I thought it would fit nicely into the remit of the PDP.
“I came up with Virtual Groove and aimed for organising it in the Spring of 2021, but with everything that has been going on, I knew it would be an online event. I also knew I wanted to raise money for the SAMH mental health charity at the same time, as that is a cause close to my heart.
“Through Facebook Live I organised the line-up, set up the timings or the performances and made sure the running order and the event as a whole ran smoothly.
“It was brilliant and it couldn’t have gone any smoother, in fact it was better than I ever imagined and the event attracted a big audience and raised a total of £2,551 – my initial hope was that I would make £500, so that was just brilliant.
“I am so happy with how it worked out and the feedback I have received has been really positive, and the performers were all very enthusiastic about it, so hopefully it could become an annual event… maybe next year it can be at a venue with an audience attending in person.
“The Sound Production course at Forth Valley College is amazing. In this unit the creative freedom you get is excellent and my classmates all came up with some brilliant projects for their own PDPs and working on projects such as this is essential for progressing in this industry.”
FVC Sound Production Lecturer Barry Frame, said: “After reading Claire’s plan about her project I was really excited to see how it would go and I was blown away with the result. Claire not only thought of every detail of what to do to make this project a success, but also thought way ahead and had back-ups in place should something not go to plan, which is key to organising a successful project. The performers were great, the show ran like clockwork and Claire managed to raise more than £2000 for charity. This was easily one of the most successful projects carried out by a student in my PDP class and at Forth Valley College.”
For more information on FVC’s Sound Production courses visit https://www.forthvalley.ac.uk/courses/sound-production