The annual Splendour weekend might not be happening in its usual late July schedule this year, but that doesn’t mean that the mid-winter sesh isn’t being recognised. Enter, Splendour XR – a two-day virtual festival of back-to-back red-hot acts that you can experience right from your bed, if you so choose.
Splendour has been working hard at rescheduling and manifesting the actual Byron Bay festival can go ahead this year in November this year, but while we’re all waiting with bated breath for that weekend in late spring, the festival team has this special event up its sleeve.
Pinned as a “world first immersive virtual music festival experience” (try saying that fast five times), Splendour is bringing the party to our place across two massive days. It’s all online, is cheap as chips, and plans to beam over 50 international and local artists and acts into your hands.
It’ll also have all the other bits and pieces that make Splendour what it is, including the Forum, Tipi Forest, Global Village, The Comedy Club, and Little Splendour.
Without the constraints of flying people into the country and putting them up in quarantine, Splendour XR is able to lay down a lineup that seems both impossible and downright illegal.
Headlined by Khalid and The Killers, the two day online experience will have artists like CHVRCHES, Denzel Curry, Little Simz, Charli XCX, Grimes Metaverse (Super Beta), Of Monsters And Men, Kaytranda, The Avalanches, Masked Wolf, Ocean Alley, and heaps more performing special sets just for the special edition Splendour weekender.
Who would have thought that Phoebe Bridgers‘ first Australian festival would be completely online and built for VR? Not me, I definitely didn’t have that on my bingo sheet.
And if you’re like me and wondering what in the ever-loving fuck Grimes is bringing with this “metaverse”, it looks like Splendour XR is the ~testing ground~ for her new girl group. According to the festival’s website, the group is made up of “the voices in Grimes’ head”, and she’ll be doing the beta testing of her art angels artificial intelligence girl group at our festival.
Good lord.
Early bird tickets for the one-off virtual Splendour XR are on sale now from the website, and will set you back $19.99 for a single day or $34.99 for a two-day pass, and if you’ve got a ticket for November’s IRL festival, you get a cheeky discount too.
Ticket prices will increase as the July at-home festival draws nearer, and if you really want to go all-in and host your own at-home hoon, you can chuck a couple of hundred bucks down for tickets which gets you a full party pack including Splendour XR cups, wristbands, coasters, straws, stickers, festoon lighting, an inflatable festival sign, and hopefully no pesky bathroom lines right when your favourite band steps onstage.
Splendour XR 2021
DAY 1
KHALID
CHVRCHES
DENZEL CURRY
DUKE DUMONT
TASH SULTANA
MASKED WOLF
RUSS MILLIONS
BAND OF HORSES
LITTLE SIMZ
VIOLENT SOHO
AURORA
PHOEBE BRIDGERS
VERA BLUE
PINK SWEAT$
CLIENT LIAISON
GRIFF
POND
TAYLA PARX
DUNE RATS
METHYL ETHEL
THE CHATS
TRIPLE ONE
CAT & CALMELL
KING STINGRAY
THE SOUTHERN RIVER BAND
DAY 2
THE KILLERS
CHARLI XCX
VANCE JOY
GRIMES METAVERSE (SUPER BETA)
THE AVALANCHES
OF MONSTERS AND MEN
KAYTRANADA
BLACK PUMAS
HOT DUB TIME MACHINE
MILLENNIUM PARADE
THE JUNGLE GIANTS
OCEAN ALLEY
JUNGLE
WHAT SO NOT
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
SINÉAD HARNETT
HOLLY HUMBERSTONE
SPACEY JANE
CROOKED COLOURS
AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS
WAFIA
AVIVA
THE SNUTS
BAND-MAID
ZIGGY RAMO
GRETTA RAY
