Yesterday evening, and word had got around that something rather remarkable was happening in Second Life. By the time the live portion of the third day of SecondFest had started at 12pm, the festival had beckoned a record number of people through the turnstiles. Thousands of punters had descended upon the online landscape and the figures were set to rise even further by the end of the night.
Unfortunately, the sheer size of the crowd posed a problem for the festival itself as many visitors just didn't have a bandwidths up to the task. Often, music lovers were forced to listen to iterant music streams or simply go some place quieter, like the Theatre tent. I missed the entire day's Indie Stage performance with my substandard computer, catching the highlights only when they were simultaneously streamed into the much less laden VIP area (not a privilege open to everyone, I know).
Despite the problems the event was still deemed a success by most participants, even after the rains came and turned one section of the site into a digital mud bath. The greatest accolades were reserved for the Second Life bands, whose Chill Island was consistently at capacity. Strangefates put on a blinding performance, demonstrating to the newbies over on the main stages just what the platform can offer bands and their audiences, with pyrotechnics, shout outs, contests and choreography.
Yet not all real-life bands were confused by the interface. Florence and the Machine's stellar performance blasted out across the Main stage between shouts to Second Lifers, sending the gathered into paroxysms of delight. Rob da Bank's hands-on approach similarly thrilled the kids on the Indie Stage.
But back on Chill Island, SL band Wiredaisies' laid back musical melodies capped off the evening at that stage before the festival decamped for the main event of the weekend, Pet Shop Boys.
Which brings up a rather interesting anomaly: although the headliners' music was streamed across all 144 acres of the festival grounds and the sound quality was as good at the Amphitheatre or the Maze as it was in front of the Main Stage, people flocked to the centre of the site to see avatar-versions of Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe and their plethora feather-clad dancers disabling Second Life for hundreds of desperate fans trying to enter Secondfest to see the band. Why? They were on looped animations, for goodness sake. Yet several camps of die-hard fans had set up camp at the front of the grounds early in the day, waving Tennant-Lowe banners and wearing striped pointy hats, taking over the bandwidth from the Florence and the Machine and Hadouken! faithful to make sure they could take part in the PSB's first digital foray into a new world. But really, it would have been just as good from the Dance Tent.
So technical issues dogged the third day of Secondfest, but those who could see and hear the plethora of acts performing their live sessions gurned their digital masks off. The computerised air was heavy with often incomprehensible techno-babble shouts of "WTG!!!11!!" and "props Secondfest!" And, in total, 15,000 visitors descended on the virtual field over the weekend, proving that this kind of music festival, while currently let down by the limitations of technology, is a surprisingly viable place to celebrate the music and arts.
More on Secondfest Myspace.
