Brite Winter festival goes virtual with livestream episodes

For more than a decade, the annual Brite Winter music and visual arts festival has been the epicenter of optimism during dark and cold Northeast Ohio winters. Naturally, the notion of such hopefulness and positivity promoting community — while needed more than ever in 2021 — can't take place as a live event. That's why Brite Winter organizers have decided to pivot into the virtual world with the aptly titled "TwiBrite Zone." Think "Twilight Zone" only fewer scares, more laughs and plenty of music. "Like most of us in 2020, we made plans and then changed them and then made more plans and changed them again," Brite Winter co-founder and managing director Emily Hornack said. "All summer long we spent time coming up with a variety of contingency plans. I lost track after six. It was pretty quick we started looking at virtual stuff — as everyone did. "Our virtual programming is a series of four episodes where we're going to celebrate things we missed during 2020." Celebrating beach parties and Fourth of July celebrations, the first episode of "TwiBrite Zone" — which debuts at 7 p.m. today on Brite Winter's website, http://www.britewinter.com — features music by Post Saga, Eliy Orcko and The Labra Brothers, as well as artistic creations by Aldous Mustache, Haley Himiko Hudson Morris and Susie Underwood. "Having the advantage of watching a lot of virtual programming roll out over the last 10 months, we have very intentionally decided to make this a lot more active with movement and different kinds of segments going on," Hornack said. There will also be a craft tutorial and comedy skits featuring festival mascot Fluri. "My vision of it is sort of like this 1950s-style variety show crossed with Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg doing crafts where things get wacky, weird, funky and quirky," Hornack said. "I think it'll be fun. Part of our MO with Brite Winters is we don't take ourselves too seriously. So we're just hoping people will enjoy it and have fun." People enjoying themselves and having fun describes last year's Brite Winter event, which sneaked in just under the COVID-19 wire. Looking back at last year's affair, Hornack said it's almost like an aberration. Still, she's proud organizers were able to give the unsuspecting audience something memorable — that was fun — in 2020. It's those thoughts that she hopes brings festivalgoers back for the monthly "TwiBrite Zone" series. The livestreams will be archived on the site. "Because winters can be tough in Cleveland, there's a little bit of the reliving that happens all of the time," Hornack said. "I do have to say especially during lockdown it was on my mind having that many people in one place enjoying the same thing and creating an experience that was really — unfortunately — rather unique for 2020. "I'm very glad we were able to provide that for people." Contact John Benson at Ndiffrence@att.net. WHAT: "TwiBrite Zone"WHEN: 7 p.m. FridayTICKETS: FreeINFO: britewinter.com