The Good News Monday

Yes, you guessed it, the theme this week is the star of Spring-Summer 2020, COVID-19, better known as corona virus. It’s everywhere, it’s taken over Earth and paralyzed its population. It’s hard to ignore the facts and talk only about music, accepting the situation and learning from it is the best we can do right now.
It gets heavy and dark fast on any media outlet today and there is an abundance of valid and correct information or data on the virus online for anyone who wants to be AWAKE. As a music festival, we still have a lot of hope and want to focus on lighter and positive aspects of these daunting times.
Random acts of kindness of people from across the globe are our favorite positive aspect of the experience we are all living. The list continues with the environment restoring itself, pollution dropping,  young volunteers organizing themselves to help, historical motivation speeches from royalties, artists hosting free online concerts for people, full on creativity, innovation and all else beautiful that comes out of this social distancing mess.

Andrea Bocelli live streams from an empty cathedral

Beloved opera singer, Andrea Bocelli, performed live to millions as part of Music for Hope: Live From Duomo di Milano on Easter. The concert was held in the empty cathedral Duomo di Milano and was also used as a fundraiser for Italian Medical Teams. At the moment the concert has 35 million views on Youtube.

“Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world,

we will hug this wounded Earth’s pulsing heart.”

Andrea Bocelli

Nature got a well-deserved break

The quarantine imposed lately had a positive effect on climate, with CO2 emission dropping in China with 25% and worst air pollution in the world—airborne particulates dropping in New Dehli with 77%.
While pollution rates go back up as life resumes, it doesn’t mean that the break isn’t positive for the environment. From crystal clear canals in Venice, to the Himalayan Mountains being visible for the first time to Indians living in the northern area, it has been great to see nature recover.

#QuarantineAMovie Twitter Thread

Hoping to crack the smile into a laugh is Tonight Show’s host, Jimmy Fallon, with his Tonight Show at Home Edition. Starting the Home Edition middle of March, Fallon managed to keep people entertained from the middle of his home and always knew how to interact with his audience, doing it once again with the #QarantineAMovie thread (recently joined by #QuarantineATVShow). The idea is fairly simple, viewers were asked to post on twitter a famous movie title adapted to COVID-19 times.
The thread is ongoing and you can check all the responses on Twitter, even join in if you have a clever idea. 

Art lovers recreating paintings

To cope with boredom or just because creativity couldn’t be contained, trends and challenges have appeared all over the internet. The Tussen Kunst & Quarantine must be the best one yet because it takes a certain kind of skill and creativity level to switch the roles and have life imitate art for a change.
Our friends from Art Safari contributed with some great pieces and anyone is welcomed to join.

Balcony singalongs

Some of the most endearing moments in this lock down have been the many balcony singalongs taking place all over the globe. The Chinese started with Wuhan, stay strong chants and Italians made it mainstream with their beautiful ballads but people coming together in song from balconies is not a premiere in the world of pandemics. It’s been happening for thousands of years, but the first recorded instance of this phenomenon was recorded in 1576, in Milan during the Plague of Saint Charles.

As mentioned, many times before, music has been a weapon for humanity to fight dark times for many years and it just seems that it is in our DNA.