More than 100 performance artists from around the world come together in December for the 121212 Upstage Festival of Cyberformance – a festival of innovative live performance all created and performed online.

Attending the 121212 UpStage Festival of Cyberformance is completely free for anyone – but it costs money to produce, so we are seeking donations to help make it happen.

The annual festival, now in its sixth year, is organised by artists Vicki Smith and Helen Varley Jamieson, with a team of dedicated volunteers in New Zealand and around the world – online meetings of the team cross multiple timezones and languages.

The festival takes place online from 5-13 December, during which 38 innovative live performances will be offered via a variety of online platforms – all free of charge and accessible via a standard internet connection and browser.

A Creative New Zealand grant provides some assistance, however additional funds must still be raised to cover the organisational costs of the festival. Anyone planning to attend the festival is invited to donate in lieu of buying a ticket – click here or visit www.upstage.org.nz to donate with your credit card or via Paypal.

The UpStage Festival of Cyberformance has increased in scope and quality every year since 2007. This year, recognising the growth of cyberformance as an artform, the festival includes work in other online platforms; performances in Second Life, Waterwheel Tap, Visitors Studio, Icecast and Mosaika.tv feature alongside UpStage shows.

The festival takes place in two sections: Walking Backwards into the Future from 5-11 December and Testing 1 2, 1 2, 1 2 on Wednesday 12 December.

Walking Backwards into the Future is a retrospective of 19 remounted cyberformances celebrating the large and diverse body of work that has been generated through the past five UpStage festivals. Testing 1 2, 1 2, 1 2 includes 19 new shows that experiment with real-time performance in a variety of online environments.

The selected cyberformances and further details can be found on the UpStage website at www.upstage.org.nz. During the festival, the website becomes the hub, providing links for audience members to the stages or other platforms for each performance.

Running alongside the online festival are a series of ‘real life access nodes’ – physical venues that screen sections of the festival for locally gathered audiences. So far nodes have been confirmed in Argentina, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway and Portugal, with more to be announced soon.