A virtual music festival is happening inside Minecraft this month

For decades, Minecraft has been a virtual destination to hang out with friends—its own cultural scene where you spent hours in the game, playing around with blocks and creating your own masterful cities alongside other gamers. 

But right now Minecraft is being used as a medium to keep bands connected with their fans—and its an exciting addition to the current deluge of live-streaming happening in the world of entertainment. While this isn’t the game’s first rodeo in hosting digital concerts, now more than ever, as we social distance, do we welcome it back.

Block By Blockwest: A Minecraft Music Festival happening later this month, has a sprawling lineup of bands including Pussy Riot, Citizen, Magdalena Bay, Nothing, Nowhere., Hunny, Fever 333, Oliver Francis, Billy Lemos, Cowgirl Clue, The Wrecks, Courier Club, Phil Good, Dana Dentata, argonaut&wasp, The Polar Boys, Mood Killer, Deal Casino, Kaonashi, Heart Attack Man, Los Shadows, Dangerboy, Rubber and Cannibal Kids. All proceeds from the event will also go to the Corona Virus Emergency Response fund.

Throughout the festival you can wander just as you would at an in-person fest, hopping around from stage to stage to see each of your favorite band’s (via their avatars) play their set and interact with the virtual crowd—that’s you!— during their showtime.

In between performances you can support your favorite artist by heading to the merch tent in the game; Click on what you like, and it’ll take you directly to the artist’s merch website. The festival will also have mini games and an art gallery. To enter, join the server discord, the gates open on Saturday April 25 at 3pm ET.

If you’re not a Minecraft fanatic and don’t have access to an account, don’t sweat it, you can still stream the entire festival on the Block By Blockwest website, or on Twitch, Facebook, and Youtube.

You can see a preview of the experience in the video below.