Covid-19: More than a game, Minecraft music festival is a blockbuster

Taking inspiration from the artwork for 100 Gecs' upcoming remix album 'Tree Of Life', the Square Garden Minecraft world was a trippy fantasy land filled with mushrooms and lit by a giant, grinning crescent moon. The stage itself was inside of a massive tree, presumably the 'tree of life' itself, which bore witness to eclectic DJ sets and a mouth-watering preview of the remix album. — Warner Music Group

LOS ANGELES: It's a Spring Saturday and somewhere deep in Philadelphia, five twentysomethings are huddled in a small apartment, each hunched over a computer. The click-clack of their keyboards is the only sound heard in the room, but via their devices, they're running one of the largest music festivals in the world.

April 25's Block by Blockwest, a cheeky twist on the annual South By Southwest confab which was called off this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, took place on Minecraft, the beloved online game in which block-shaped players can build the virtual worlds of their wildest dreams.