▲ (L-R) Meaghan Blanchard, Cynthia MacLeod, Adyn Townes
After giving it some careful thought, the Coopérative de développement culturel et patrimonial de Mont- Carmel, the organization that hosts the concert series each year, decided that even a pandemic wouldn’t stop their annual concert series from happening. “It was really important for us to keep it alive,” says Gallant."Before we started back in 2008 there were lots of things in the community that had closed down. Tourist attractions and resorts had closed. Grocery stores and gas stations had closed. Many businesses were closed so there wasn’t a lot for tourists to do when they passed through. So, that’s where the idea for the concert series was born.” Since then, says Gallant, the Mont- Carmel Summer Concert Series “has been all about bringing people together”, and in a time in which we’ve been living apart from one another for so long, its message couldn’t be more potent. Since safety is a top concern at this time, instead of hosting live performances, the concert series is being done entirely virtually, streaming from the cooperative’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CDCPMC.
“We know that keeping someone’s attention span on social media isn’t an easy feat,” says Gallant. “It’s a happy mix. We might get people who tune in for two or three minutes or we’ll get someone who will sit through and watch the entire show.” By streaming the concert series this year, we have opened it up to a brand new market and it is allowing more people to take it in than ever before. While the series has always remained popular throughout the years ¬ according to Gallant their 200-seat venue was always between 75-100 per cent at capacity for each and every single performance ¬ now, “our concert series is available to the entire world,” he says. “Our series is available to anyone anywhere who has an internet connection and who wants to watch. Folks can either watch it live or they can watch it later. That’s another benefit of putting it on social media. If someone misses a performance, it can be streamed at a later date. Or, if they loved it so much, audiences have the opportunity to watch it a second or third time.”
The Mont-Carmel Summer Concert Series “has been all about bringing people together”, and in a time in which we’ve been living apart from one another for so long, its message couldn’t be more potent.
- Christian Gallant
While previously the series would host a two-hour-long concert that would include three or four artists per week, this summer the Mont-Carmel Summer Concert Series is streaming a 45-minute performance featuring one artist on Facebook every Sunday at 7 p.m.
SUMMER 2020 www.pei-living.ca
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