The impact of COVID-19 effectively harpooned the live music industry, but perhaps even more devastating was its crippling effect on the education sector. College seniors, who were forced to make the difficult transition to fully online courses, sadly found themselves worrying not about whether or not their gown fits, but whether or not they’ll be able to wear it at all.
As graduations across the world continue to tragically bite the dust, robbing seniors of a moment they worked tirelessly for over the course of their entire lives, many are trying to fill the void with virtual events. Such is the case with a group of lionhearted students and alumni from UC Berkeley, who recently announced Blockeley Music Festival, a major in-game Minecraft music festival jointly hosted in collaboration with the nation’s #1 public university.
In addition to electronic duo BEAUZ, who helped produce the event alongside OS Studios, notable artists featured on the lineup include Sam Feldt, Bakermat, Michael Calfan, Vini Vici, Brooks, EDX, and Dannic, who are among 40 artists primed for appearances. “We had to do whatever we could do to help make this happen,” BEAUZ said in a press statement.
The festival will go down in-game after the official Berkeley Graduation Commencement, which will feature a speech by UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ. The astonishing recreation of UC Berkley’s campus in Minecraft also received a shoutout from preeminent talk show host Trevor Noah, who praised the effort on The Daily Show, extolling the initiative with a round of applause and a simple “bravo.” You can watch the shoutout here.
The two-day festival will air at 4PM PST (7PM ET) on May 16th and 10AM PST (1PM ET) on May 17th via OS Studios’ Twitch channel. All proceeds from the event will be donated to COVID-19 relief.
You can RSVP to Blockeley Music Festival here.
