New Year’s Eve Takes Place in Decentraland This Year

During unprecedented times such as the Covid-19 pandemic, large gatherings of people have had to come up with creative ways to remain safe and still enjoy themselves. New York City’s iconic New Year’s Eve Ball Drop is just one major event to have suffered the perils of the pandemic.

The virtual event, dubbed ‘MetaFest 2022‘, will include non-fungible token (NFT) art galleries, rooftop VIP lounges, and virtual musical performances. Virtual billboards will tie the experience to the event’s metaverse counterpart via live streams from New York City.

NYE Comes to Decentraland

On December 29, DCG and Jamestown announced their intention to recreate a significant cultural site within the metaverse – One Times Square. The 26-storey building in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square is home to the annual New Year’s Eve Ball Drop celebration, now limited to 15,000 socially distanced and fully vaccinated attendees due to a rise in the number of Covid cases in New York.

NYE Ball Drop in Decentraland.

According to Simon Koster, DCG’s head of real estate, “This event highlights how virtual events can cohesively integrate with real ones in an effort to bring once-in-a-lifetime experiences to so many that would have never been able to participate otherwise.”

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‘MetaFest2022’ is not the first event to take to the metaverse. As also reported this week by Crypto News Australia, a new project called Animal Concerts is building a virtual touring company to host VR live music events in the metaverse.

“The metaverse is an important part of the evolution of real estate and the built environment,” said Jamestown president Michael Phillips. “Whereas physical real estate is largely limited to people with geographic proximity, the metaverse can give people around the world meaningful access to places through immersive virtual experiences.”

To join in on the experience, users can create personalised avatars and explore the Times Square Plaza.

More and More Moving into the Metaverse

As the metaverse continues to explode, more and more industries are moving into the digital space and many are choosing the Decentraland metaverse to facilitate their move. In November, the Caribbean island of Barbados announced it would become the first sovereign nation to have a digital embassy in the metaverse, forging an agreement with Decentraland to host it.  

Jana Serfontein
Author

Jana Serfontein

Jana has keen interest in what cryptocurrencies have to offer in regards to NGO’s, governments and the financial system. And is also intrigued with the psychological effect that cryptocurrencies have on society.

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