Our Sync Coordinator Phoebe has put together a selection of culture and art freebies for you to sink into during quarantine. We’ve done all the work and compiled the list below, all you have to do is click the link and enjoy. Let us know what you’re enjoying the most by getting in touch on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Montreux Jazz Festival Archives
The historic music festival, held every summer in Switzerland since 1967, has teamed up with music content streaming service stingray.com to provide 30 days from when you first sign up free access to 50 live concert performances from their archives to stream, including Nina Simone, Deep Purple, Wu-Tang Clan, and Carlos Santana. Definitely worth checking out and holding your own home festival if you’re missing the live gig scene!
Radiohead’s Public Library
It’s been over a decade since Radiohead’s ‘pay what you wish’ model for their In Rainbows album release. No strangers to free access, Radiohead have released their 2-hour long appearance at the Best Kept Secret Festival from 2017 to watch for free on their recently launched Radiohead Public Library site, which also has access to rare B-side tracks, live-recordings and TV appearances.
The National Theatre At Home
The National Theatre in London started recording performances in 2009 to launch National Theatre Live, to broadcast plays in cinemas. In what they’re calling National Theatre At Home, they have been premiering a different play from the archives on their Youtube channel every Friday available to watch for 7 days only! From today (24th), it’s Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with Tamsin Grieg. Next week, Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch!
The Royal Opera’s #OurHouseToYourHouse
The Royal Opera House Youtube channel has also been premiering full performances every Friday in April from the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet with the #OurHouseToYourHouse, including the Royal Ballet’s Metamorphosis and Gloriana (available from 24/04). A great way to kickstart your induction into Opera and Ballet.
(Opera Singer Nadine Benjamin recently featured on our Industry Insights page about her experiences, which you can check out here: Industry Insights #12 - Opera Singer: Nadine Benjamin)
#RoyalAlbertHome
From a house to a home, the Royal Albert Hall is sharing free live streams of artists sharing their work from their own homes. Previous weeks have seen Rufus Wainwright and Peter Gregson take part with Jack Garrett and KT Tunstall later this month. You can check out the archived streams and see what’s coming up on the website.
SXSW Online
SXSW, the annual conference, film and music festival was cancelled a week before it was due to take place in Austin, Texas. Every year it debuts films that go on to be big hitters in the wider world including Oscar Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker and critically acclaimed horror Us starring Lupita Nyong’o.
SXSW has announced they are teaming up with Prime Video to bring some of the films that would’ve featured at this year's festival to stream for free in front of Amazon’s paywall (in the US - useful if you have a VPN). You can already check out some of the shorts that would’ve been screened for free on Mailchimp here: Mailchimp Presents: Support The Shorts
The date for the online festival has yet to be announced but they are aiming towards late April. The films opted-in will only be available for 10 days. Amazon Prime Video Presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection
Free books on Amazon
Amazon has released lots of ebooks for free download including Children's books, Fiction classics including The Portrait of Dorian Grey and The Wind In The Willows, School books based on age groups, Professional Development titles for students and teachers, and some popular titles as well. You can download them to the free Kindle app on your phone. Lots to get stuck into!
Free Access to Every Wrestle Mania on WWE
WWE are offering a 30 day free trial with unlocked access to thousands of hours of content including every WrestleMania to date (minus Too Big For Just One Night), and even some docuseries. Essentially, all things Wrestling so if that’s your thing, what are you waiting for?
Off-Set on Instagram Live
The Brighton-based filmmakers social night of screenings and discussions Off Set, from The Progress Film Company, is bringing their event online to IG Live starting from Tuesday 28th April at 8:30 pm. Kicking off the series with freelance director/editor Adrian Ardelean, definitely worth tuning into the conversation over on the OffSet.UK IG account for some valuable professional insight. Excited to see who else will feature!
Natural History Museum and others
Tour an empty Natural History Museum (among many other museums and galleries around the world) by Google Street view or listen to Sir David Attenborough guide you around the Hintze Hall via The Natural History Museum website. There are plenty of online resources about their exhibitions, interactive material and a virtual tour to get your culture fix.
BONUS: Google Arts & Culture
Google’s Arts and Culture platform first launched in 2011 so if you don’t know about Google Arts & Culture, now you do! There are over 2,000 museums and archives to explore from 80 countries. You can take virtual tours on Google Street View, as well as famous artists studios, and zoom in on particular artwork for a closer look. You can even take an Art Selfie to find your ‘fine art likeness’ from the database. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles recently challenged their twitter followers to recreate paintings from home and the results were fantastic: https://twitter.com/GettyMuseum/status/1242845952974544896
My personal faves:
https://twitter.com/CharissaAfshar/status/1245550214007537665
https://twitter.com/paludi/status/1248726704820047874
https://twitter.com/thisisfisk/status/1244318924851884033
https://twitter.com/IntrepidHistory/status/1243582265407361024
