With the approach into Thanksgiving weekend, one thing providing us with entertainment is the third installment of the Digital Mirage online festival series, ‘Friendsgiving’. As their prior live streams, run by the Brownies & Lemonade team and the Proximity YouTube channel, have been massive hits, we decided to sit down with Blake Coppelson, from Proximity, to get his take on the Friendsgiving stream.
EDM Maniac: What is it like working together for this festival now that you’ve had two live streams under your belt?
Proximity: I can’t say it gets any easier to pull off since there are always fast balls thrown at us. But we are getting more cohesive from Proximity and B&L working together and it’s gets even more fun to curate these festivals. This is also our first festival outside of YouTube and seeing other streaming partners excited about hosting Digital Mirage is incredibly validating.
EDM Maniac: Given the experience you’ve gained with the first two festivals, as well as the additional time available for planning, how is Friendsgiving stepping up the game compared to the previous two?
Proximity: This one is different because it’s only two days, more intimate, and the locations are like nothing else we’ve had on the previous two Digital Mirages. Both from a physical but also digital standpoint, the creativity that went it to the sets from the artists for this Digital Mirage is next level.
EDM Maniac: The charity aspect of the livestream has been a very significant factor for Digital Mirage. How did you go about choosing and working with NIVA for this festival?
Proximity: We always try and pick a relevant charity to support for Digital Mirage. This time it’s NIVA because independent venues are closing rapidly left and right. COVID isn’t going away any time soon and venues are going to be the last things that open up in the city. We’re hoping to raise funds to keep them alive during these unprecedented times.
EDM Maniac: We’ve seen the huge donation amounts in your previous festivals, what is your new goal for Friendsgiving?
Proximity: Since it’s two days we know it may be less but still optimistic that people will be able to donate a few dollars here and there. I think we would be happy with 30-40k since DM2 did 75k. Since there are so many charity streams there is definitely people out there that may have already donated all that they can, which is fine! At the end of the day we just want to give people a free stream and entertain them during their time at home.
EDM Maniac: Digital Mirage has been known to have some of the best lineups for streams we’ve seen so far. How do you go about establishing this lineup?
Proximity: This lineup was a mix of having previous DM artists do something a little different, whether that’s a b2b set, or a unique spin-off set such as YehMe2 “Trap History Set”. We also made this lineup more diverse than the previous DM to be more inclusive.
EDM Maniac: With livestream events carrying the EDM industry during much of this pandemic, what is your philosophy on providing this experience to the community?
Proximity: Our philosophy is to entertain, and that is all. We want these streams to be free, accessible, and most importantly fun. People look forward to streams in general and we always want to go one step further in every regard. I think DM has grounded itself as one of the premiere online festivals with sets being more raw and authentic.
EDM Maniac: As we go into Thanksgiving weekend and get to experience the Friendsgiving live stream event, what is something you are thankful for during this time?
Proximity: Thankful to be working with amazing artists and their teams that believe in us after throwing three of these festivals. We’re thankful of our communities in general for supporting us and motivating us to keep these streams going. We had no intention of doing this many in 2020 and have only done so as a result of all the positive feedback. So thank you to our fans – we would be nothing with you.
EDM Maniac: What do you think the future of Digital Mirage is, post-pandemic?
Proximity: Continuing to do digital events for sure – but quite possibly entertain the conversation of a real life Digital Mirage event once things open up! :)
EDM Maniac: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Proximity: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading this – I hope we can add a little more entertainment to your holiday weekend.
Featured photo by: Colin Young
