Virtual venues

Musical artists, meanwhile, are taking to virtual stages to tour. On April 23, 2020, Travis Scott put on a virtual concert in Fortnite where he debuted new music for the nearly 28 million players in attendance. Following the concert’s success—it was the biggest event in Fortnite’s history—Epic Games launched “party royale,” a violence-free party mode for Fortnite. DJ and producer Diplo kicked off the launch with the first live event on May 1, featuring a set by Major Lazer.

Club Matryoshka, an exclusive virtual club located on a private server in Minecraft, hosted a 24-hour virtual music festival from April 26-27, 2020. The space, which was created in 2019, boasts sound stages, DJ booths and dance floors with views of unique skylines and landscaping. Called Infinite Summer, the festival hosted musicians on three stages with an audience of avatars whose players could enjoy the music and interact with other festival-goers as if they were at an IRL concert.

And retro video games are being resurrected as unique venues for raves and music festivals, with DJ sets performed in the Dam level of Goldeneye 64, the Legend of Zelda’s Hyrule Castle and Sonic’s Green Hill Zone.

The travel industry is also exploring digital destinations, looking to a future of virtual vacations. “The convergence of different technologies into the virtual realm could create a serious and exciting alternative to the reality of travel,” Philippe Brown, founder of luxury travel company Brown and Hudson, tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. “In the uber-luxury realm, we’re already speaking with a client who’d like us to scope out the creation of a virtual travel experience designed exclusively for their family to a land we co-create,” Brown explains. “It’s early days, but they imagine a destination that is a synthesis of several past journeys, some imagined and some on their wish list.”