A Year On, How Have Virtual Music Festivals Evolved?
Credit: Tomorrowland
We can’t deny that the last year has changed the way we look at the delivery of live performances, especially in festival format. Virtual events have again been a hot topic this week, so we’re taking a look at some of the ways event organisers around the world have upped their digital game.
Tomorrowland Took Us To Pāpiliōnem
After the cancellation of Tomorrowland 2020, the team behind the Berlin festival immediately began planning for their virtual event - Tomorrowland Around The World. For the event, they created an entire fictional, virtual world called Pāpiliōnem, accessible via computer, smartphone, smart tv or tablet.
The Pāpiliōnem island was home to eight different 3D stages that hosted performances from the likes of David Guetta, Katy Perry, and ANNA, which in reality, were filmed across São Paulo, Sydney, Los Angeles and Boom. The perks didn’t stop there either, the event even included panels and discussions featuring huge names like will.i.am and Shaquille O'Neal.
Over the weekend of 25th - 26th July 2020, Tomorrowland reported 1 million viewers and following the event, audio recordings of select sets were released to Apple Music subscribers.
Tomorrowland Around The World wasn’t exactly the Euro-2020 trip we envisioned for ourselves, but it was certainly impressive!
Glastonbury’s Cinema Release
After the UK’s Glastonbury Festival was cancelled, its event organisers announced the Live At Worthy Farm livestream - a five hour event, filmed on-location at Glasto’s usual home, featuring performances from Coldplay, Damon Albarn, Haim, Idles and Jorja Smith. Event organisers also extended the event’s reach by streaming it across 350 cinemas in the UK, on top of offering ticketed streams, timed to accommodate to fans globally.
Unfortunately, some fans who purchased at-home access to the event were locked out for two hours, unable to use their access codes. To make up for it, Glasto’s organisers eventually launched a free stream, but it could only be rewound for an hour, meaning some pass-holders missed out on part of the event.
Splendour In The Grass Extended Reality
Earlier this week, Australia’s Splendour In The Grass announced their plans to return in July, in XR form. The world-first event will allow punters to access Splendour XR on mobile, tablet, browser, and even VR devices. They’ll be able to create a digital avatar and explore the world of a digitally recreated Splendour in the Grass, including performances from 50 artists, both local and international. With 70 different cameras to choose from, day-to-night simulation and more, Splendour XR seems to be gearing up to be the event of digi-punters’ dreams. You’ll find us at the tree by the Amphitheatre stage!
We suspect these high-tech festival event features are just the beginning (glitches and all), so we’ll be keeping a close eye on where and when we can get our virtual groove on next.
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