Web3 platform Afterparty has announced that it will be hosting its first annual Afterparty NFT Art and Musical Festival this year, which it is promoting as the world’s first NFT-gated music and art festival. The event will take place from March 18th-19th at AREA15 in Las Vegas. The official festival lineup is yet to be announced.
Other events have begun to experiment with requiring NFTs for entry instead of tickets, but this will indeed be the first festival. The event “takes token-gated experiences from the metaverse to real-life,” according to a release, and will require proof of ownership of one of Afterparty’s 1,500 Utopian NFTs for entry. Each owner of a Utopian NFT will also get a plus-one, as well as two NFT passes that they can either sell or use to invite friends.
Afterparty’s NFT festival will be a celebration of the NFT art movement and aims to bring together NFT artists, musicians, and creators. It is being produced in partnership with former Life is Beautiful partner Ryan Doherty and former Kaaboo senior executive Chris Racan, with NFT artists Nate Mohler and Alec Maassen on board as creative directors.
“Digital art is just the beginning of how profound NFTs will be for the creator economy,” said David Fields, CEO and Founder of Afterparty, in a statement. “Afterparty’s NFTs serve as verifiable digital assets that give owners a membership to experience exclusive events and the vibrant community that is Afterparty – the festival brings all of this to life. We believe NFT art deserves its own celebration, to be front and center as the main event. Whether you’re an emerging artist, Grammy-winning musician, new to crypto or a veteran collector, Afterparty welcomes you to one of the most creative, diverse and exciting experiences in the world.”
Afterparty’s website notes that it will continue to host “intimate experiences at varying locations around the world and in the metaverse,” and that Afterparty Utopian NFTs will be needed to access it all. In this way, they serve as a sort of membership token that owners can use to access Afterparty experiences, which include the Afterparty Super Bowl Weekend Event, gallery showings at the Afterparty House in LA, and Afterparty Pop-Up House at Art Basel 2022.
“There is an energy around NFT art that reminds me of the early excitement around music festivals in the U.S. in the early 2000s. Afterparty is bringing together the best artists, musicians and creators in the world to present NFTs as the groundbreaking new art form they are,” said Doherty in a statement.
Currently, the public can enter to win an Afterparty NFT through the Afterparty website and Discord. Official pre-sale opens on January 20th.