What pandemic? Yours truly has been inspired by the innovation emerging throughout the duration of the last year and a half. I want to go to shows regularly again, but I don’t want to be “normal.” I want this tsunami of outside-the-box thinking to continue.

Splendour in the Grass is certainly known as one of the premiere live events in Australia. Their virtual event SplendourXR will give supernerds on the other side of the world like myself a chance to engage. Per the festival organizers, they are forgoing avatars in favor of live sets filmed especially for this event. What will this look like? A YouTube trailer gives us a hint, without giving a whole lot away:

And, did you check out the lineup above? It’s safe to say that with the help of developers Sansar from San Francisco, this will be a visually stunning experience with many one-off sets from forward thinking artists. At the bottom of this article you’ll see some of my anticipated sets. One very important note, from the press release: “Splendour XR will operate globally on a single timezone, 12pm to 2am AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) (GMT +11) with programming from 2pm.” For East Coasters like myself, that means if you want to tune in live the first sets of the day will start at 12AM July 23 (or 9PM on July 23 if you’re on the west coast). For those that don’t feel like staying up all night and don’t live in Australia, the sets will be available for replay online for 7 days.

In addition, basically anyone with an electronic device will be able to tune in. VR and gaming desktops will be the handiest, but other more basic folks (you’re looking at one of ’em, typing this) ought to get a decent and fun experience too. We found this graphic on Happy Mag that explains the difference in each experience.

There’s still time to get your tickets. Snag ’em here.

Artists I’m hoping to check out:

CHVRCHES – They have never disappointed in their live shows in Columbus. Their new singles are full of attitude and atmosphere at the same time. I’m sure their set will be stunning.

Black Pumas – The little band that could of 2020. They killed it at the Grammys. ‘Nuff said.

Grimes Metaverse – I know what a Grimes is, but what’s a Grimes Metaverse? Her album of 2020 was intriguing. She might not be the most popular right now due to her associations with Elon Musk, but it seems like that if anyone will kill it at a virtual set, it would be her.

The Chats – I saw a ridiculous music video from these guys last year. That’s good enough for me.

Khalid – I saw him play direct support to Halsey at Columbus’ Breakway Festival a few years ago. I remember being both impressed by how polished his set was as well as how down to earth he was in his stage banter.

Tash Sultana – At the beginning of this year, I knew nothing about this artist. But I really vibe with her new record Terra Firma. I find her sound almost impossible to classify yet appropriate for a music festival like Desert Daze.