Replicating Events while Keeping Distance
Writer: Edsel Pragiwaka | Illustrator: Azis Mulayana | Editor: Kinar Nisa
It has been more than six months since the world got hit by the Coronavirus. Along with that, many events around the world have been either canceled or postponed due to the social distancing protocols and safety measures that need to be taken seriously to prevent the spread of the virus. Boring, would be the first word to be used to describe the experience of being in isolation. To combat that, many people and companies shared a rather innovative approach to recreating a social experience while respecting the coronavirus public health guidelines. What we are going to focus on is more towards the ones that were happening in Indonesia!
Drive-In Cinema
Although this event is technically nothing new since this kind of cinema was a big trend back in the period from the late ’40s to the early ’60s, but with the occurrence of this virus it becomes relevant once again since coming to the cinema is pretty much a hazard because of the Coronavirus, especially in Indonesia. The selection of films might not be the latest or the newest box office movies but they might have some acceptable big hits playing in there. Currently, it’s not really as widely available as normal cinema, but there few major ones that offer the drive-in cinema for you to try, if you are in Indonesia that is. One of the biggest ones that are open for business is in Senayan, South Jakarta which is a well-populated area in Jakarta and offers 2 kinds of cinema layout that are available for you to purchase. How the cinema works is by linking an FM frequency that we can match in our car which by then will deliver the sound right to our car. An added point for everybody’s comfort is the inclusion of a carbon detector which can help reducing people putting their car in an “on” position. Ticket prices for this experience vary from 200,000 IDR to 350,000 IDR or roughly 1,400 JPY to 1,800 JPY. The other one works like a circus that travels across different towns in Indonesia but mostly somewhere within the vicinity of Java island since they need to bring their own equipment to those different places.
Drive through miscellaneous
Drive-through, a term that is mostly associated with the fast-food or catering industry nowadays just had a whole new meaning. Under the influence of the Coronavirus, a lot of activities that don’t even have anything to do with a business make a drive-through alternative for their various activities. An example of this activity is graduation. Instead of doing it online, some universities decided that it would be a pretty good idea to do it in the style of “Drive-through” in which the student just go through the podium, take their diploma from their respective dean, then drive away in their vehicle which is usually a car or motorbike but some people like to take it to the extreme and they brought a chariot into their graduation ceremony. The other is kindergarten where the student and their parent would attend the kindergarten in their car and the instructor would be teaching them from outside of the car. This is quite innovative because it still delivers pretty much the same amount of human interaction as attending a normal kindergarten.
Online concerts and various shows
With the Coronavirus spreading in the public, the entertainment industry especially for any performers since most of their performances will be either postponed or more likely canceled. Even big events like the 2020 Olympics is forced to be postponed because of the virus. This may not be specifically for Indonesia but a lot of events have merged themselves into the online territory and gains a good sum of attendees through it. In Indonesia, there is something called “Indonesia Online Fest 2020” which contains more than 100 speakers/performers and it claimed itself as the biggest online festival experience in Indonesia, and it was held back in May. It contains all sorts of activities such as workshops, bazaar, and even an esports competition. The other one is theatrical dance performances that use their own home as the “stage” to express themselves, it was called “Saweran Online”, in Indonesian “Saweran” means giving a sum of money to a performer that is performing some form of art. Here the spectator can pay the dancer in a donation manner where it would help the dancer’s own welfare. The music performers also not losing their spirit by keeping their existence in either free or paid online concert that can be enjoyed by people from the leisure of their own house.
This Coronavirus has been hard for many industries mainly entertainment, with those struggles comes bankruptcy that was caused by an uneven amount of people attending and their skyrocketing debt. Online alternatives really are the easiest option and we can roughly say that it is working and attracting a lot of mass. Hopefully, this way people can stay within the health protocol of social distancing and continue to reduce the spreading of the Virus!