Decentraland Books Deadmau5, Paris Hilton and More for Metaverse Music Festival

Pack your virtual festival attire.

Decentraland is hosting a first-of-its-kind music festival featuring more than 80 real-world artists. Big names such as Paris Hilton, Deadmau5, Alabaster dePlume and 3LAU are involved.

The four-day “Metaverse Festival” also includes VIP areas, a merchandise store for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and, oddly, portable toilets. The festival starts Oct. 21.

“It is a celebration of music and culture in the virtual social world, but also a recognition that the metaverse has arrived as a viable, irresistible and profitable space for creative people, whatever their medium or background,” Decentraland community and events lead Sam Hamilton said in a statement.

Among the artists performing is Scottish singer and songwriter Nina Nesbitt, who is new to the metaverse but found the opportunity appealing because in-person concerts are only slowly coming back to life, she told CoinDesk in an interview.

“I’m not able to tour internationally at the moment, and it made me think of other ways I can perform and connect with my fan base,” Nesbitt said. “I thought this was a really interesting way and something that’s quite new and has not been done that much before in the pop world so I wanted to give it a try.”

The metaverse has become increasingly popular as people have been looking to the digital space during the pandemic to connect with friends and family or seek entertainment. Many of the metaverses today are blockchain-based, like Decentraland.

“I think if it hadn’t been the pandemic, maybe I wouldn’t have gone down this route,” Nesbitt said.

Decentraland is a virtual reality platform that’s built on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to create, experience and monetize content and applications.

For the festival, the musical acts pre-record their gigs, which will then be turned into a digital performance by an avatar. Nesbitt recorded her set in her studio room.

“It was really strange recording it ... to try to have the energy of being on stage and doing all the movement in the body because you have to exaggerate everything,” she said. “But I have always wanted to be turned into a real-life Sim, so this has been a really cool experience.”

Correction (Oct. 14, 20:24 UTC): Removes mention of Flume. The artist had committed to participating in the event but backed out on Wednesday, according to a festival representative.