EmeraldCityEDM attended Seattle’s first Socially Distant Drive Through Electronic Music event over Memorial Day weekend! Produced by “Covert Bat“, an affiliation of The DJ Sessions, R90 Lighting, Gleam Law, Bending Lite Productions and Christian Jackson, their motto is “Reinventing Events in the New World”.
We were inspired by the efforts in Germany and Denmark to keep the live event industry alive during these times. -Covert Bat
Our project “Covert Bat” was founded by the very people who have been directly impacted by the cancellation of the entire live event industry. Together we have created a model that shows our city, state, and country that events can be safely executed in these critical times. Our future is bright as we continue to work with our local government and event producers to continue producing live events for the community. -Bending Lite
First off this is not an EVENT or a SHOW. For lack of better definition this is a drive thru spiritual experience. It is of course non-denominational and you may choose to believe in whatever higher power or lack thereof that you choose, but we know that if you are here you also believe in music. -Covert Bat
Held at a private loading dock in South Seattle near the Duwamish, the whole process took a little under two hours from start to finish (including time spent driving around in circles due due to getting lost). There was a bit of a wait to get in to the event, as invitations were checked and vehicles were spaced out.
While the location was a bit tricky to find, once we arrived the way in was well lit with volunteers pointing out the way and safely parking the vehicles. It truly was a drive through, you entered from one side and exited through the other. Getting in was a bit tricky with parking, but getting out was a breeze.
Once all of the cars were parked, the show began. We had a 50 minute set from local DJ Darrius, but heard that Pezzner and Subset also DJ’d. There were three iterations of the inaugural event, with the setup being tested out over the previous weekend.
The spectacle, the energy, the rain piercing the lights and the fog. It was fantastic. It made me forget briefly the state of the world. It was what i needed. -Jupiter
Once the show began, I felt like an infusion of life was being injected back into my soul. As I heard the music come through the speakers, something inside of me awoke and I felt like my soul was being restored. No matter how many live streams you watch, there is nothing that is the same as hearing electronic music on a quality sound system. -Kristen
For the first time since early March, this event gave me something to look forward to and from the first note of music to the last, my smile remained and my heart felt happy for the first time in a while. -Adam
Keep live music live, alive and safe in the era of a global pandemic. Until given further directive, we intend to keep the joy, thrill, and beauty of live music production alive through these trying times and beyond. We intend to do this safely and to that end we are attempting to stay within the guidelines created by State, County, and City officials. Unfortunately for our industry, some of the guidelines are not clearly enough defined so we have made decisions on our own that we believe to be safe, sane, and best practices here and now. -Covert Bat
We are in no way attempting to thumb our nose at authority. Quite the opposite. We exist to help pave the way and show that we can be a shining beacon of hope for the live event industry going forward. Nothing about this is ideal. However, we hope that you will come with us on our journey into the unknown. -Covert Bat
When’s the next show? How can I get an invitation?
The answer is “soon”.
We are now actively looking for a better location that will provide us the opportunity to host bigger events and share this gift with others. We’re still going to have to limit performances to an hour as the bathroom issue continues to be problematic. We hope to maintain this project to provide you and others with the entertainment we know you’ve been missing and we hope to be able to pay it forward as a fundraising service to help the severely afflicted live event industry on a local level. We intend to bring this concept to other styles of music and live entertainment with each performance being a benefit to various organizations. -Covert Bat
Covert Bat is now looking for a larger space, if you have an idea please email Covert Bat.
We want to give a special shout out to our land lords who believed in this project enough to let us temporarily adjust the contract on our lease agreement. -Covert Bat
Request your spot: Email and ask to be notified when this happens again! (note that future shows may not be electronic)
Donate: Did you attend? Donate via texting “BAT” to 202-858-1233 or donate online here. The organizers raised about ~900$ of their 1,200$ goal. Going forward, ticketing may be implemented to recover costs but for now Covert Bat is financially supported by donations and volunteers.
Follow Covert Bat:
CovertBat.com
Facebook
Photos by Christian Jackson and EmeraldCityEDM.
Stay up to date on upcoming EDM events in the Seattle area by following the EmeraldCityEDM Event Calendar, and enter to win free tickets to local EDM shows on the EmeraldCityEDM Contests & Giveaways page.
