Comprised of Diplo, Walshy Fire and Ape Drums, the global dance music trio Major Lazer has been making the world dance for over a decade. And like so many other artists the group had an extensive road calendar, with a 50-show tour spanning 11 countries planned before a global pandemic cancelled their plans.
“This pandemic made everyone rethink how they were going to pursue their career from now on,” said Ape Drums.
That rethinking of how to connect powerfully but safely with fans has now led Major Lazer to bring their party-starting energy to a new VR performance in Venues. The show will air in the Venues app (available on the Oculus Quest platform) on Wednesday, November 18, at 6 PM Pacific. Fans can visit http://ocul.us/majorlazer to subscribe.
Supersphere and Facebook’s Oculus will enable Major Lazer to bring their full stagecraft to the show. Using ArcRunner for production, the group can fully and accurately digitally recreate and perform inside all of the show elements from their planned tour including stage layout, set design, lighting grid, special effects, and more.
“We really love what we do. We love our dancers, we love performing with each other, and we want that love to show in VR,” said Walshy Fire.
As Major Lazer’s performance demonstrates, the ability for people to attend live shows in VR through Venues has massive implications for music and entertainment. Fans and artists are hungry for the fully-built stage shows they loved to reach the digital world, and in the midst of a pandemic, technology like ArcRunner enables artists to fully recreate cancelled shows and tours. Then post pandemic, artists can continue to digitally perform for audiences, deepening their connections and potentially opening new revenue streams.
“Enabling Major Lazer to bring the full stagecraft of their live show to digital worlds like Venues is one of the major strengths of the ArcRunner production platform,” said Supersphere’s Lucas Wilson. “We’ve seen first hand how devoted Major Lazer’s entire team is to delivering a killer show for their fans, and we’re excited to provide the technology to help them do that at a price point and on a production schedule that works for them.”
