Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance had their first ever livestream Sunday, February 9, 2020. The smell of incense lightly coated the room, laughter echoed and greetings were exchanged. After a few short practice recordings and mic checks, we were ready to go. The whole event was unscripted and unforgettable. Between the livestream and the addition of the new podcast Shakori Sessions, this is a big year for Shakori. I feel very lucky to be a part of it.

The livestream was at Circle City Recording, a private studio, located in Pittsboro, North Carolina. This was my first team experience as the new intern for the Shakori Hills Festival. 

What a great first experience it was!

You never know how much collaboration goes into a project or how many people are working behind the scenes for these kinds of things until you’re part of it. At the livestream, I was in charge of monitoring social media. Three screens, and multiple tabs in front of me at once may sound no different than the average young adult, but I assure you, it was different. 

The livestream began with a performance from Emily Musolino, and had two more performances from her weaved throughout the stream. 

We had staff from Shakori Hills and other guests talk about all that goes into making the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance possible. Emily Wilhelm, the Festival Director shared some of her journey with Shakori Hills and some of her favorite parts. 

Scott Mizerak, Regional Sales Manager for Foothills Brewing, shared why the partnership with Shakori is important to the brewery, which is based in Winston-Salem. He also gave us a peak of their brand new IPA “Festival Express,” which will have it’s festival debut at Shakori Hills GrassRoots this spring.

Many others came out to support Shakori, let us in on what would be new at this year’s festival and more. Click here to watch the stream on YouTube (unfortunately, our recording is missing the first few minutes of the stream).

At the end of the livestream we announced our band lineup for spring 2020. Watching the comments roll in and our social media channels go crazy is what made the day feel like a true success. The energy in the room afterwards was indescribable. We all knew the team collaboration paid off and our work was done… for the day. 

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