With so many changes and restrictions to live music in the age of COVID-19, creativity has become a powerful tool to get by. We’ve seen karaoke livestreams, online concerts, and interactive digital festivals, but now comes a live music event that’s truly out of the box.

The team behind Glastonbury’s Shangri-La has announced a new virtual reality festival called Lost Horizon. Dubbed as the ‘world’s largest independent music festival in virtual reality’, Lost Horizon aims to be ‘a fully interactive and multi-stage event’ that anyone in any part of the world can tune into. 

The event will take place on 3 - 4 July 2020 and serves as a replacement for the highly-anticipated Glastonbury 2020, which was cancelled and postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

YES! HERE IT COMES! Check out the amazing line up hitting the virtual stages of #LostHorizonFest on the 3rd & 4th July… it’s gonna go OFF!https://t.co/5nP6uSNhYH pic.twitter.com/oJqH6gxq49

— Shangri-La Glasto (@ShangrilaGlasto) June 8, 2020

The virtual festival will be a digital recreation of one of Glastonbury’s most vibrant areas, Shangri-La. As an ode to the theatrical and hypnotic area, Lost Horizon features a lineup filled with the most iconic DJs and musicians in electronic music, and a huge art gallery. 

There will be over 50 musical acts and 100 artists present at the festival. Across four stages, including Gas Tower, Freedom Stage, SHITV and a new addition called Nomad, festival-goers can expect to see renowned artists like Fatboy Slim, Jamie Jones, Peggy Gou, Eats Everything, Krafty Kutz, and so many more. There will also be 200 art pieces, curated by ShangrilART, for guests to discover.

Check out the four stages of Lost Horizon:

Beyond an immensely exciting lineup, Lost Horizon is an extraordinary event in and of itself. Using Sansar, a cutting-edge, photorealistic platform, the team behind Shangri-La was able to create the virtual festival and replicate a deep and realistic experience.

Lost Horizon is described to be ‘a virtual and mixed-reality festival’, which means that the event space will be rendered into a video game-like landscape and even feature 'computer-generated avatars and green screen ‘hologram’ performances'. 

Check out how the virtual festival landscape would look like:

Festival-goers can access the event through Sansar’s mobile and desktop application, where they can freely move around the space and interact with other attendees or toggle between the event’s vantage points. There will also be a virtual reality option available.

"Our mission is to pioneer new ways of sharing culture and creating a global community that we feel defines us and our ethos. By creating a digital platform to experience art and music in a new way, we are at the forefront of defining the next generation of live entertainment and creative communities as we know them," said Kaye Dunnings, Creative Director of Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, in a press statement.

Users will be able to register for a free ticket via Sansar, and stream the event via their mobile and desktop app. Alternatively, the festival will also be streamed on Lost Horizon’s official Twitch and Beatport pages, as well as on their partners' and the artists' Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch accounts.

More information can be found on Lost Horizon’s official website.