While this year's Lightning In a Bottle, along with every other festival, was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the circumstances didn't stop LiB producers the Do Lab from throwing a real-deal party for a casual 1.5 million viewers this past weekend (May 22-24).
In the transformational spirit of the longstanding California event, the three-day DGTL LiB livestream featured music, meditation, educational talks and surreal, psychedelic puppet shows, among other special programming. Many of the DJ sets - including those by Kaytranada, Justin Jay, Clozee, Tycho and more -- went down in online environments created to simulate various Lightning In a Bottle stages, with the creators of these digital areas, Vita Motus Design Studio, adding fantastical digital flourishes that could only exist online.
"Besides the iconic architecture, we wanted to include smaller recognizable festival elements like the Fun Machine, the kabotas, and the flamingo pool floats to enhance the connection for those who have attended in the past," Vita Motus CEO Heather Shaw tells Billboard Dance. "It’s a difficult jump to make, but our goal was for virtual viewers to really immerse themselves in the wonder and fun of the LIB festival experience.