With a lineup featuring more than 950 artists, the livestream festival Rave Family Blockfest seemed too massive to be true, and as it’s turning out it just might be. At least for now.
Today (July 10), organizers of the event, which was set to take place July 9-12 inside the video game Minecraft announced that it will be postponing after a chaotic first two days.
The event went live yesterday, with attendees who paid between $10-$15 for entry finding major functionality issues. “Again, unless you’re a seasoned Minecraft player or gamer in general, movement in Minecraft, let alone from one massive area to another, is confusing at best and impossible at worst,” reported YourEDM. “Users are left stumbling around the virtual world or just succumbing to the location where they were spawned in-game.
An email sent by event organizers to participating artists and managers earlier today stated that the high number of attendees who were unfamiliar with the game was creating myriad issues and that they would be prioritizing additional how-to and walkthrough content. Nearly a thousands Acts from across the scene including Bob Moses, Maya Jane Coles, deadmau5, Steve Aoki, Skream, Blondish, Seth Troxler, Khruangbin and MK more were scheduled to perform.
Many users were also surprised to find that once they had the game open, they also had to open Mixcloud in order to stream the actual music, an issue that was compounded yesterday when Mixcloud server maintenance caused the platform to go down.
“I can’t ask [the team] the fans who supported us, or the artists who put time and energy into creating this amazing event to continue to work under the level of pressure we currently are,” reads a statement from Rave Family CEO Jackie McGuire sent out late this afternoon. “It’s not fair to anyone involved to deliver a subpar experience and knowing what we’ve actually built versus what we were able to deliver is heartbreaking.” Read McGuire’s complete statement below.
This is the event’s second postponement, with a June 22 announcement noting that, “There are so many unknowns with an update of this scale, especially for Bedrock/PE Fam. So we are pushing the festival back two weeks.” The event, originally called Electric Blockaloo, was first scheduled to happen June 25-28.
A new date for the event has not yet been announced.
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Rave Family,
I don’t know that there will ever be words to describe my feelings right now. I’ve never been more proud, hopeful, frustrated or defeated. My entire team has worked harder in the last three months than I ever knew was possible. What started out as a silly idea between friends morphed into something far larger than any of us. I have also asked more of my team than anyone should, and they have delivered above and beyond in every way.
With that said, I can’t ask them, the fans who supported us, or the artists who put time and energy into creating this amazing event to continue to work under the level of pressure we currently are. It’s not fair to anyone involved to deliver a subpar experience and knowing what we’ve actually built versus what we were able to deliver is heartbreaking. People who attended paid for an experience that they deserve.
We have decided to postpone the event, while still leaving our festival and camping open for the people who have been enjoying them for the last few days. Many artists have indicated that they still want to have their music in-game, and with more time – and hopefully sleep – We will be in a better place to fully deliver the festival everyone deserves. I want to be clear that this was never meant to be a one-time event, but rather the start of movement.
For those who choose to receive a refund, we’ll issue them within 48 hours. For the renegades who want to continue to camp, fest and dance with us, we will continue to support the servers and the amazing new world we’re building for our community.
I sincerely apologize to anyone who felt they were deceived. As we are able to let you into more of our worlds, we hope you’ll understand the level of time and energy by dozens of volunteer builders and other supporters that went into them. And to those volunteers, I am so very sorry that your hard work and time wasn’t showcased in the way it deserved to be.
While I feel like I’ve let a lot of people down, and to a certain extent, let the negativity and trolls win, watching people run around and have fun together in a place that my friends, family and I built last night was one of the highlights of my life. I still believe that creating a community that fosters tolerance, acceptance and connection through music is the most important thing I can do with my life.
We will still have music tonight, and hope to see you under the stars <3
With Love,
Rave Family
