The ongoing pandemic has brought entire industries to a screeching halt in 2020 and the situation may not improve for at least a few months, perhaps a year, some specialists say. This is pretty bad news for music festivals – this year, the vast majority of the events were cancelled, with organizers and promoters expecting to close the year with losses well into the billions. But all is not lost. The new reality has forced many to look for alternatives – and the internet may have just proven to be one of the more viable ones.
Games and Music
For many, online games have proven not only a great pastime during the many lockdowns but also a means of socializing online – so they came as a logical alternative for live music events. And, of course, they have proven to be a viable one as well.
Epic Games’ popular online shooter Fortnite already had a massive player base. With the addition of in-game “parties” and “movie nights”, though, Epic has grown it even more. Events like Travis Scott’s “Astronomical” that attracted a staggering 45 million viewers was followed by several others, featuring artists like Deadmau5, Steve Aoki, and Dillon Francis.
But for every success story, there are countless others told about failures. One of the best examples is Rave.Family’s ill-fated “Block Fest”, a grandiose festival set to be held in Minecraft that went down in history as the Fyre Festival of our times.
Virtual Venues
Tomorrowland is one of the biggest EDM events in the world – or better said, it “was” before the pandemic hit. The event was famous for its elaborate decorations and attractive lineups, as well as its massive attendance – last year, the two-weekend event attracted around 400,000 people to Boom, Belgium.
This year, in turn, the people behind the festival had to be creative – and the were, creating a massive virtual island called Pāpiliōnem to host the events of the festival. The island had eight virtual stages, and the performers recorded their sets in custom-built green-screen studios across several countries. But the event had more to offer than just DJ sets in fairytale settings: it came complete with roundtables, party games, tailor-made video content to stream, and many others.
Tomorrowland Around the World happened over a weekend, featuring more than 60 performers, and sold over 1 million tickets.
Live Stream Concerts
Among the many online events held this year, there is one that stands out: the one called “BANG BANG CON The Live” held by Kpop band BTS this summer. The event attracted a massive audience – more than 750,000 viewers from 107 countries have tuned in to follow the live stream of the boy band.
The show was a massive success for the band’s promoted Big Hit Entertainment, too, considering that tickets for the event were sold between $20 and $35. For this price, the viewers could follow the show from six camera angles, sitting in virtual “rooms” that were styled to fit the songs being performed.
The band will try to repeat the success of “The Live” with “BTS Map of the Soul ON:E”, a live event that will be streamed on October 10 and 11. During the event, the band will perform the equivalent of an “offline” concert, spiced up by augmented reality and other modern solutions. Tickets for the event will cost between $40 and $90.