Decentraland Metaverse Festival
The #Metaversefestival was a 4 day event created by Decentraland as a celebration of music, technology and the NFT community. Featuring sets by different artists everyday which gives a comforting ‘traditional’ festival feel to the event. Among these are headliners Nina Nesbitt, Alison Wonderland, DEADMAU5 and Paris Hilton ft Fewocious. Small and large artists had spots during this festival drawing huge crowds, in all servers there was a buzz of excitement and wonder. Below is the set list for the festival.
Looking at the list you can see all acts were split by stages which are colour coded for users to find easily along with the coordinates for seamless gameplay. This was also assisted by the map including signposts on how to get to the different stages similar to what you would see at an IRL event. This attention to detail on all levels is truly what made the #Metaversefestival a complete feeling experience. Players could enjoy themselves and feel genuine human connection and excitement through the platform.
(Credit: Decentraland)
Even getting lost on the map was fun, with secret challenges and activities sprinkled around the map. This included the dreaded festival toilets and limited edition merch stands. A personal favourite was the ‘Find Juan’ challenge. The Decentraland Twitter would post these challenges with prizes to entrants through responding with a picture of the user ‘Finding Juan’. Here is us managing to find him hidden on top of the helter-skelter in the fair.
(Credit: Decentraland)
These tasks connected Twitter users to the festival, getting more players to attend and creating a bonding experience for those involved. Collectors had a lot of incentives to join the festival too with POAPs rewarded for attending concerts, stages and completing tasks during the set time. These are compatible with the POAP app and work similarly to keeping a festival wristband after visiting, as a reminder you can share with friends when they search your ETH address in the app.
Revolutionary technology was used during the festival for many of the acts which is very important to Decentraland growing and becoming a wider used platform. Sam Hamilton (Head of Events & Community and Decentraland) said
The Metaverse Festival was significant for Decentraland because it proved the platform could accommodate a world-class, technically solid, multi-day event. But it was truly a game-changer for the artists. The Festival gave musicians a way to reach their fans in a way they had never done before. Not only could someone like Nina Nesbitt, for example, reach a worldwide audience ‘in person’ at the same time, but she could create her own unique avatar, produce a bespoke performance and increase direct engagement with fans through POAPs, airdrops and merchandise. There’s no other experience that can seamlessly blend this intimacy and global reach.
The Nina Nesbitt performance was a first of its kind on Decentraland, as developers worked to import her real-life performance into Decentraland. This was done by getting Nina to wear a motion tracking suit and makeup which could be picked up by the computer to import into software for her to control her own avatar by her physical movements. This technique is similar to what is currently used in movies and follows the same concept, only importing this onto the stage of Decentraland. Nina covered the whole process on her personal TikTok which goes into more detail, it can be viewed below.
@ninanesbitt brb off to the metaverse
♬ Blade Runner 2049 - Synthwave Goose
This revolutionises what performances are capable of, in the post-Covid climate of the current world. Artists are also able to connect with users unlike ever before such as during the Paris Hilton set where her personalised ‘Genie’ was created by the wonderful Genie team alongside her special guest Fewocious who created many exclusive free items for the festival. More info on Genies can be found on their Twitter at https://twitter.com/genies
(Credit: Decentraland)
Pictured above is both of their personal Genies during the closing headliner set by Paris Hilton. During this their Genies interacted with users by coming into the crowd and dancing, playing instruments and jumping around the arena. This unique experience created a buzzing atmosphere and made users – even those at the back of the crowd suddenly have front row seats to the Genies.
Another key way the festival connected with users was by dropping ‘crates’ during the headliner sets and afterparties on multiple occasions. These crates could include anything from common to legendary wearables to users. Player favourites include the legendary items designed by Fewocious such as the boy blue mask, Nina’s shoes and Paris Hilton’s dress. This gamification of collecting rare merch drives players to come back every day.
This is key to the appeal of Decentraland to many NFT gamers as it allows for ‘play to earn’ to become reality. Legendary items for example are 1/100 assets which often have a floor price of 5+ ETH depending on the item, with some going for much higher than this. The play to win feature opens up opportunity for gamers to connect with NFTs if this is their first experience of the blockchain. Suddenly players can find themselves gaining large amounts of ETH for enjoying themselves. Below are some of the collectables I gained during the festival.
(Credit: Decentraland)
The large success of the Decentraland festival leaves us wanting more excitement and hopeful on what may come next from the platform. Could virtual concerts and festivals start to become the norm, with POAPs being the new treasured concert ticket stubs? With more festivals and concerts being announced frequently we can see Decentraland growing at a fast pace. More and more celebrities are buying land in the Metaverse, building their own stages, collections and housing so it is only a matter of time before we start to see more about this being covered by mainstream media.
Upcoming Decentraland events are available on their website, where you can set reminders for the ones you would like to attend:
(Credit: Decentraland)