Having grown his Resonate festival into one of the most popular podcast gatherings in the country, Chioke I’Anson is reaching out to the world with the fourth iteration of the event this year.
While you won’t be able to attend if you don’t already have a ticket – the event sold out in July literally minutes after tickets became available – the festival is expanding its adjacent offerings to facilitate new ways for people to be involved.
And, with the persistent popularity of podcasts, other events are on tap this fall hoping to draw the interest of both producers and fans.
On Nov. 7 and 8, “Resonate: Pangea” will take over VCU’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) with a focus on international audio storytelling [disclosure: VPM, which owns Style Weekly, is a sponsor of the event]. “When any movie director talks about their influences, they are always from across the world,” says I’Anson. “They’re always like, ‘Oh, Akira Kurosawa and, you know, some obscure French director.’
“But if you talk to radio people, their influences don’t necessarily cross borders, and they certainly don’t cross languages. I thought it might be nice to have a conference where the presentations are by or about people who produce in other languages so we can learn some lessons beyond our English-centric context.”
For those who aren’t major producers or podcast stars, there will be two general access events on the Thursday before the festival. Community Podcast Day will be held at the ICA and is geared towards people who are podcast-curious, fans or students. “It’s a chance to experience what Resonate is about,” says I’Anson. “To meet people from production companies and to learn about the craft of narrative.”
Also on Thursday, Resonate is collaborating with a magazine called Good Tape that covers the podcast industry to hold a “Fast Follow Summit.” “The idea is to have leaders and influencers from outside of podcasting come and give their insights, lessons they think podcasters can learn from,” says I’Anson. That event will be at Common House and also be open to the public.
While it’s definitely the biggest local event, I’Anson’s festival won’t be the only opportunity for podcast lovers and producers to gather this fall. The Sistas with a Voice podcast network is holding a Podcasters Rock gathering up the street in Fredericksburg on Sept. 27.
There will also be a prominent podcast-adjacent event later this year when “Killers of Kill Tony” comes to the Altria on Dec. 13. The show will feature comedians who have ‘killed’ on the “Kill Tony” podcast, the popular live comedy show where performers are picked at random to deliver a one-minute set. The podcast has been streaming on YouTube for more than 10 years and generally averages 2 million downloads per episode.
Meanwhile, fascinating local podcasts continue to bubble up. This past summer, Andy Thompson, the intrepid outdoorsman who bought Sharp’s Island in the middle of the James River, started inviting prominent Richmonders out to the island to record podcast conversations in his unique open-air studio.
It’s still early days for the Sharp’s Island podcast but it’s already shown how local podcast producers continue to push the boundaries of the medium.
