COVID-19 has shut down venues and events all over the world, and in a period where everyone is encouraged to stay home not only for their own safety but also the safety of others entertainment is more important than ever to ease tensions and helps us all stay sane. Japanese online radio station block.fm is doing their part by organizing a free online music festival featuring some of Japan’s most buzzworthy artists along with iconic DJs to help us all pass the time in a way that emulates the feeling of hitting the club in Tokyo on a Saturday night. This is also planned to just be the beginning with plans to hold a real-world music festival with the same flavor once the pandemic dies down, bringing a true ONLINE/OFFLINE aspect to the event.
We’ve covered every artist featured on the lineup here in the past, so it goes without saying that this is a who’s who of OTAQUEST’s favorite current artists. Each of the performers on the lineup will be broadcasting from their own homes/studios, all collected and connected at a central point courtesy of LINE Live and block.fm.
To tune in you just need to download LINE Live on iOS or Android, or point your web browser to the LINE Live event link. Festivities kick off at 8:00pm JST (4:00am PST, 7:00am EST) on Saturday, April 18th with AAAMYYY getting things started. Viewers can participate via in-app chat, or share your comments on social media using #blockfes.
Similar to other popular streaming platform, viewers can support the artists participating using the in-app LINE COINS system (requires a LINE account), but the event is 100% free to tune into. In addition, a special event-exclusive T-Shirt will be available for purchase during the course of the event for 4000 LINE COINS. All proceeds from donations & shirt sales will go to the performers and towards funding the planned offline music festival once everything dies down. Shirts will feature the nicknames of everyone who supports the event printed on the back!
I’m definitely going to be tuning in myself, of course being located in Tokyo makes it a bit easier for me, but what better way to kick off your weekend than with music from a selection of amazing producers! If you have it in you to be awake for it, I definitely recommend not missing this. I can’t pinpoint a favorite artist on the lineup personally, but I’m definitely excited to see both AAAMYYY and Chara perform as I haven’t had a chance to see them perform live in any capacity before. Shinichi Osawa & ☆Taku Takahashi are also highlights as I have yet to see a bad set from either in all of the parties I’ve been lucky enough to watch them perform at.
For more information on the event, check out the official BLOCK.FESTIVAL website. Hope to see you in chat!