Yes, you did read that right, this coming Saturday, April 25, at 3 pm EST, a festival of live music is going to be held within the virtual world of Minecraft. The band Courier Club have organised this charity event to raise money for the CDC’s Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund.
Block By Blockwest: A Minecraft Music Festival is a virtual multistage gathering that Courier Club have designed within Minecraft that will bring musicians and fans together to play games and celebrate their love for music. The event has a diverse program of artists, including my favourite band IDLES, plus Pussy Riot, Fever 333 and many more. Here’s the full line-up:
The festival will also feature mini-games and an art gallery for in-game festival-goers. Each band’s 20-minute set will be a prerecorded live session played through the server. Merch stores for artists will be hosted on the servers, and a BXBW T-shirt will be available for purchase with all proceeds going toward the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization.
You will need to have Minecraft Java Edition to be able to take part, which you can learn more about in the tutorial video below. Or you can watch live on YouTube, Facebook or Discord.
We’re living in extraordinary times, and going to live gigs is very much missed, so kudos to Courier Club and all the artists for making what seemed impossible, virtually possible.
“Due to the mass cancellation of tours, ‘Block By Blockwest: A Minecraft Music Festival’ aims to provide an online festival experience for the artists that were forced to cancel their tours and fans who missed out on the chance to hear their favorite artists live” — BXBW
It has been amazing to see the creativity of musicians and artists that have gone into entertaining the masses who are in lockdown across the world. From Facebook live gigs, Zoom Q&A’s and now virtual concerts in Minecraft, it really is a joy to see how we can play our part in tackling the spread of Covid-19 from the comfort of our own homes.
So I hope to see you in a circle pit on Saturday, and we don’t need to social distance! But no stage diving or crowd surfing creepers!