The event, put on by ICA and described as “ICA’s first-ever worldwide online concertina players gathering on Zoom”, was on Saturday February 10, 2024 starting at 7 pm UK time. It was planned as a relatively simple event, with no distribution of sheet music in advance but just a single “play-around” with those who wanted to do so taking turns playing for others to hear while muted. We had a Zoom breakout room at the event, but we said that it would not be staffed.
ICA decided that the event would be free and open to everyone, not just to ICA members. Pre-registration was required, and we opened it around January 10. We got so many registrations right away that we decided not to do any more publicity because of concerns that the group would be too big for us to manage well. The registration info did remain available on the WCD 2024 web page. We accepted registrations until just before the start of the event.
We received 67 registrations, which came in until the day before the event. We emailed all registrants and asked them, if they were planning to play rather than just listen, to fill out a brief survey telling us their country, the type of concertina they play, and whether they’re an ICA member, so we could plan a balanced program and let people know in advance the order they would be playing in. 17 people from five countries wound up playing. so a number of people played two or three times. Most attendees just listened, though they might have played along while muted. One player provided sheet music for one of the tunes he played, and we shared it on the screen so others could play along.
47 people wound up attending, representing at least seven countries (UK, US, Australia, Japan, Germany, Canada and Austria). At least five of the six US time zones were represented, including Alaska and Hawaii. Concertinas played included English, Anglo (including a miniature and a baritone), Maccann, Crane, Hayden, and a huge Karlsfelder concertina played very nicely by Jutta Tigges from Germany.
Some screenshots:
