Isol-Aid (pitched as an Instagram Live Music Festival[1]) is a stay-at-home festival initiative aiming to assist the Australian music industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]
The first concert featured 72 artists and took place from 12 noon to 12 midnight on 21–22 March 2020. Artists' live-streamed their 20-minute performance via their Instagram accounts from wherever they were practising self-distancing.[1]
A second festival occurred on 28–29 March 2020, featuring 74 artists and a third on 4–5 April 2020."[3]
In July 2021, Isol-Aid launched Homegrown, a new program providing creative and financial support to emerging bands across Australia and New Zealand. Homegrown was pitched as a 16-week program whereby "emerging local acts are invited to perform 30-minute sets alongside established artists as part of Isol-Aid's online festival." The first event took place on 14 July 2021.[4]
On 1 September 2021, Isol-Aid announced Australian Musicians for Afghanistan, as eight-hour livestream concert to help raise funds for Afghanistan, with all money raised from the event being donated to the Australian-based aid organisation Mahboba's Promise. The event took place on 2 September 2021.[5]
Isol-Aid is an online music festival and community, profiling musicians – who would otherwise have had shows, launches, tours and other appearances planned – to create content and stream live and online to an audience. The festival was created in the days after the coronavirus pandemic reached Australia, when it became immediately clear that musicians and their teams would be heavily impacted by the cancellation of their shows and tours.[3]