Why it matters to come to live events

Today we can watch everything from home: films on streaming platforms, concerts through our phones, plays as recordings. There has perhaps never been more content available to all of us from home than now.

And yet, despite that, I believe that today, of all times, people are missing the real live experience: the moment the lights go down in the hall, when the audience falls silent, when together with hundreds of other people you step into the same emotion. That cannot be carried across a screen. Live events are an encounter and an experience, not just a programme.

They are an encounter with music, with art, but also with people who feel similarly to you — and that matters especially in the diaspora.

Here we often live fast: work, obligations, routine. And it easily happens that people drift apart from one another.

That is why cultural events in our language are evenings when we connect, not ordinary nights out. When someone runs into a friend they have not seen for years, when after the play people stay another hour in front of the hall because no one wants to go home — that is a sign our events have outgrown their basic purpose.

I have seen many such moments: people who came alone and left with new friendships, families who came to a play together for the first time, young people who may speak our language less well, but who feel a sense of belonging through the music and the atmosphere.

And that is exactly why I believe live events will always have their value — because nothing can replace the energy people create together in the same room.

It cannot be bought, it has to be lived.

— Evica