STREAM Shangri-La team VR music festival via The Big Issue!

The people behind Glastonbury‘s iconic Shangri-La is raising cash for The Big Issue after transforming their event into the world’s biggest-ever virtual-reality music and arts festival.

And you can get involved via The Big Issue on Facebook where plenty of the festival’s most anticipated performances will stream live.

Lost Horizon is recreating recreate the legendary south-east area of the festival site by filming more than 50 of the world’s biggest artists and DJs on a green screen and placing them in special VR renderings of the Shangri-La stages.

The event on July 3 and 4 is be open to attendees to explore using computers, a mobile app or VR headsets and will feature secret headliners and hidden venues to give the crowds as much of the authentic Shangri-La experience as possible.

Massive stars including Fatboy Slim, Pete Tong, Skream and Jamie Jones are performing sets across the virtual stages while films, documentaries, theatre, live art, comedy and animation will be broadcast elsewhere.

Lost Horizon is a real festival in a virtual world, by the team behind Glastonbury's Shangri-La. Catch my set at the Gas Tower Stage with Carl Cox, John Digweed, Sasha, Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler, Eats Everything, Jody Wisternoff, Peggy Gou, Pete Tong and many more. pic.twitter.com/fTkZdyHNHr

— Nick Warren (@DJNickWarren) June 8, 2020

Cash raised from the event, with donations to be made via the VR and streaming platforms or through the festival website, will go to Amnesty International and to boost The Big Issue’s efforts to support vendors during the Covid-19 crisis.

It’s not the first time the Glastonbury organisers have gotten behind The Big Issue. In 2017, four vendors swapped their usual pitches for the Shangri-La field at the festival where they sold the magazine alongside a Jim Woodall installation depicting Birmingham vendor Dave made up entirely of Big Issue magazine covers.

Organisers said the Lost Horizon will feature “computer-generated avatars and green screen “hologram’ performances”, and will also be streamed live on Beatport, Twitch and across social media.

People viewing on their mobiles will be able to “toggle between different vantage points” within the virtual world while VR and PC attendees will be able to move around inside the space as well as chatting with other festival-goers.

Big Issue vendor Garry proving as popular at #Glastonbury2017 as @jeremycorbyn!

(You can find our hard-working team at Shangri-La! 🎪) pic.twitter.com/UVJPWrqxwN

— Big Issue (@BigIssue) June 24, 2017

Creative director Kaye Dunnings said: “Shangri-La has brought many world firsts since its creation in 2008, from the first to use video mapping in a festival environment and an immersive storyline, to the first womxn only space or heavy metal area at a mainstream festival, incorporating creativity at its core and as a direct response to the world we live in.

“Our mission is to pioneer new ways of sharing culture and creating a global community that we feel defines us and our ethos.

“We need unity more than ever right now, in an industry that is falling away in front of us. 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.’

As well as streaming via our Facebook, tickets for the virtual festival are available now online and fans can subscribe through the festival website for access to the free Lost Horizon website.

Image: Sansar