Audio under the stars | Friday, September 23, 8 p.m. | The Plant, Pittsboro
It’s a simple idea. Take the type of audio storytelling enjoyed by listeners of podcasts and public radio, add lawn chairs and picnic blankets under a setting sun, and turn the act of listening into a communal function. It’s This American Life with local stories enjoyed on a grassy lawn with your friends and neighbors instead of in your headphones.
When Elizabeth Friend and Jenny March first organized Audio Under the Stars in 2014, they never thought it could grow into one of Durham’s most popular summer events.
Friend, who now works as a producer at WUNC, says she was “flabbergasted” by the turnout at their first show, which she and March organized alongside other students taking classes in audio documentary at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Study (CDS).
“[There] was, like right off the bat, an inkling that this is something that appeals to more than just audio nerds,” Friend says. “There’s an audience for this.”
Audio Under the Stars later moved to the hospitable front lawn of CDS near Duke’s East Campus. The summer-long festival grew to attract more than 300 people a night in the years leading up to the pandemic, organizers say, with listeners packed across the lawn forming a quilt of picnic blankets under the warm glow of string lights.
After a pandemic hiatus—no events in 2020, and one virtual event in 2021—Audio Under the Stars is set to return to in-person events, organizers announced recently, with a few changes, including a move to new venues and a new seasonal setting. Partnering with Duke Arts, organizers are now planning two events for this fall, including the show’s first event outside of Durham.
In late July, Audio Under the Stars announced a September 23 event at the Plant, an event space with local breweries and businesses converted from an old manufacturing yard near Pittsboro in Chatham County. Taking the show on the road has been a longtime goal, Friend says, and the Plant offers a unique space for programming.
The show’s roots are in Durham, Friend adds, and hosting shows in the city is a priority.
But the return to Durham has been a rocky road. In July, organizers announced on social media that Audio Under the Stars’ partnership with CDS was no more, leading to unexpected expenses. For years, the center had provided access to equipment as well as a venue for shows, invaluable for a festival otherwise supported by individual donations and a small, intermittent stream of grant money. According to the social media post, organizers were told CDS was no longer looking to host any partner events for the foreseeable future. Friend did not detail more information about the end of the partnership but says she is open to working with the center in the future.
The new partnership with Duke Arts is much-needed good news for Friend and March. The department will support September’s event at the Plant and a show later in the fall in Durham, with a time and place to be announced soon, according to organizers.
“Audio Under the Stars gives us a respite from our daily lives and brings together community and music—one of core goals,” John Brown, Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke, wrote the INDY. “Our entire Duke Arts team is thrilled to partner with this wonderful program and we look forward to these shows.”
Friend says the partnership will help Audio Under the Stars return to Durham before the end of the year, an important goal for the small team behind the show. As they prepare for the upcoming pair of shows, Friend says plans for 2023 and beyond can wait.
“We’re going to bring back these two shows and then sit down and reassess,” she says. “Does it make sense to talk about future collaboration? What are our goals for 2023?”
A long-term goal of the series, Friend says, is to expand its ability to help amateur contributors working on their audio submissions from scratch. Before the pandemic shuttered programming, they worked with two such producers in 2018 and four in 2019.
“It’s very hands-on and labor intensive, but we think it’s like a core part of what we want to be able to do in the future to help keep bringing new independent producers into a nontraditional audio pipeline,’’ Friend says. “So you at least walk away from that experience with a piece that you could pitch somewhere else.”
Fans have long been on the lookout for the return of Audio Under the Stars.
Durham resident Matt Navey volunteered during the 2019 season and says he was thrilled to hear about the new season. The event offers a somewhat unique opportunity in a rapidly changing Durham, Navey says, a chance to hang out with old friends and meet new people in a cozy outdoor space without having to pay.
“People are looking for an excuse to go do something outdoors that doesn’t cost money, where you can just kind of sit around with other people,” he says. “But those spaces don’t really exist anymore.”
Marc Maximov helps Friend and March seasonally with the show and has contributed five stories to the festival, including a story about reconnecting with a distant family member over social media. He says he enjoys how easy it is to relax and listen.
“It’s almost like going back to the days when people told stories around campfires,” he says. “It’s just indescribably pleasant to do that.”
Friend says that’s part of what made Audio Under the Stars unique from the start.
“We listen to a lot of stuff in our earbuds and in private in our cars,” Friend says. “And what I found is, stories hit differently when you hear them with others. The sad parts seem sadder or the funny parts funnier. It’s like you pick up on the emotional vibe of the people around you and it resonates in a way that it doesn’t when it’s just you by yourself.”
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