Finland turned to virtual reality to compensate for some of the lost celebrations due to the coronavirus.
May Day is a major holiday in Finland, when people gather outside for parties and concerts. While a mass gathering isn’t safe right now because of COVID-19, the city of Helsinki came up with a way to move the celebration online.
The country hasn’t been hit especially hard by the coronavirus, but a city-wide party could be a big setback. Traditionlly, as many as a hundred thousand people gather in only a few parks. The city of Helsinki formed a partnership with VR company Zoan, which had already been working on virtual Helsinki, host a concert.
Finland has a population of around six million, and 700,000 viewers tuned into the virtual concert, according to the city of Helsinki, meaning that nearly 12% of the country watched the event. Of those attendees, 150,000 went beyond just watching and created avatars to participate.
The company hopes VR will eventually become a place for virtual shopping, environmentally friendly travel, and more.
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In the future, Zoan has other plans for virtual Helsinki beyond COVID-19.
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The event was also successful in keeping the center of Helsinki empty, as people stayed home instead.
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Watch part of the concert here.
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A spokesperson told Business Insider that this concert was the largest XR (cross reality) event in history.
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Meanwhile, designers made effects that went with the performances on stage, placing performers in the center of Helsinki.
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For the musical part of the event, performers sang in front of green screens.
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The mayor of Helsinki gave a speech before the concert.
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Or, people who had VR headsets could use those to experience the concert.
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In the browser version, viewers could make avatars to represent themselves at the concert, and respond with emoji, much like recent “Minecraft” concerts.
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Finns could watch through a browser, which could handle hundreds of thousands of viewers.
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Zoan’s project now has a completed version of every building in Helsinki.
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May Day celebrations typically begin the night before, so the concert was Thursday night.
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Images of the city became places people could visit virtually.
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Over the past three years, 10 full-time designers and other freelancers worked on virtual Helsinki.
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Zoan had already been working on virtual Helsinki for over five years, after founder Miika Rosendahl first had the idea.
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