LIVE MUSIC IS BACK, AND SO IS COMMUNITY

As gigs and festivals return to our stages, we explore why community among fans is as important as the music itself.

Needless to say, it’s been a rough sixteen months for live music. Venues were forced to close their doors when the pandemic first hit, plunging them into financial uncertainty that’s still ongoing. Even with donations and grants, 83% remain at imminent risk of closure, while tens of thousands of jobs have been in danger of disappearing. To pour salt on the wound, the industry has been met with disdain from the arts-averse government - something highlighted by their infamous suggestion that we should all just retrain in cyber. 

Despite all the uncertainty, live music has still made a determined comeback. Latitude and Tramlines kicked off the long-awaited festival season, and artist tours from 2020 have finally been confirmed for this autumn. Not only does this finally mean some stability and hope for the industry, it also marks the return of the communities that make music so important. 

In Fangirls - a deep-dive into the world of female music fans - Hannah Ewens writes that “To be a fan is to scream alone together. To go on a collective journey of self-definition”. It’s true; for so many of us, music plays an integral role in growing up and forging an identity; at live gigs, this is at its most tangible. It’s a chance to physically be there, to meet the people behind your Twitter mutuals, or to make new friends with total strangers. From a shared music taste, people are likely to have shared political and world views, shared life experiences. “You’ve automatically got that mutual ground,” says Lauren, a keen gig-goer speaking to VOCAL GIRLS from Hampshire. “You can talk to people as if you know them”.

The benefits of going to gigs have even been approved by science: research from O2 and the Behavioural Science expert Patrick Fagan found that fortnightly gig attendance could add nine years to a person’s life - that makes up for more than six global pandemics! They saw that going to gigs improved people’s feelings of self-worth and proximity to others by 25% - two of the key ingredients for a longer, happier life. Research from Psychology of Music found similar results, and particularly emphasised “the important role of engaging with music in the company of others”. 

For a lot of people the pandemic has been a very lonely and mentally draining experience, but according to a recent Harvard study some of the hardest hit have been those aged 18 to 25. This age group has been reporting the highest rates of loneliness, alongside other mental health concerns, which psychologist Richard Weissbourd has attributed to a lack of “robust social infrastructure”. The pandemic struck just as many of us were moving from one place to another - either for university or work - and made it even harder to build new connections. Communities have now become even more important for people’s wellbeing, including the ones that grow from music.

One group that has always benefited from this is the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, Hayley Kiyoko played the O2 Forum in Kentish Town. On the way up from the Tube station, the McDonald’s had become awash with Pride flags, either hanging around people’s necks or painted on their faces. They also filled the queue that snaked around the Forum, and lit up the stage throughout Kiyoko’s set.

Kiyoko has always made a point of celebrating her sexuality through music, telling Time: “When I started opening myself to the world, I found hundreds and thousands of people that felt just like me”. At her live shows that community finally gets to come together, in “this safe space that people can just be who they are and feel free”.

Daisy, who was at the Kentish Town gig, remembers that “it was the first time I was in an LGBT space”, and that they were struck by “how safe that can feel”. For a lot of young queer people - and particularly those living outside cities - gigs like Kiyoko’s can be their only access to real-life community spaces. Equally, the artists themselves are just as significant: examples of successful queer adults can be hard to come by in the suburbs. 

Importantly, that positive influence between artists and their fans goes both ways. In an Instagram post from June, British singer Yungblud gushed that he was “so lucky” to have his fanbase, who gave him “the courage, the conversation and the education to come out as pan”. Community has always been the priority for Yungblud, who refers to his fans as a ‘family’ - one that’s inspired several of his biggest records. “It gives you a sense of belonging,” says Lauren. “I passed my phone forwards [at a show], got it signed, and then it actually came back to me. That’s trust in the community”.

Throughout the drought of live music, artists have been doing all they can to keep their communities going. Some have created interactive fan projects and WhatsApp groups, while others have put on livestreamed gigs in place of real ones. Louise in Newcastle bought tickets to some of these shows, one of which was put on by cast members from the musical Six. “It reduced the binary of all or nothing,” she says. “Also, it raised money for charity, and it was hopeful that one day we could see it live again”.

Now, finally, we can see things live again (albeit with a test or vaccine beforehand). For venues and artists, their livelihoods can get back on track - though particular support is very much still needed for smaller and independent shows. For the fans, though, the gain isn’t financial (trust me, the post-lockdown battering of my bank account has been mildly horrifying). Instead, we’re getting experiences back, new connections, and the sense that now we’ve made it through a global pandemic, everything might actually be alright again.