Friday, July 8th through Sunday, July 10th sees the fifth Shivers Unleashed music festival take place in Second Life.
Organised by Shivers Productions, led by Mania Littlething and Anakin Muircastle, the festival brings together 20 headline artists and bands on the main stage across the weekend, supported by DJ sets on a separate “chillout” stage as well. With the exception of just one year, The Shivers Unleash Festival, or SUF, has been a part of the Second Life music scene since 2011, and is truly international in flavour. This year, for example, features artists from across Europe and North America and from South Africa and Japan, all of whom come together to celebrate and share a love of music with SL residents.
I had the opportunity to chat with Mania littlething in the run-up to the event, and one of the first questions I asked her was how SUF came into existence.
“It actually started while being drunk with my partner,” she replied, laughing. “We had a Halloween event at our club and we got the idea to some time host a really big cool festival. That got realised in the summer of 2011, when we hosted the first ever Shivers Unleashed Festival!”
This year sees SUF take place on a dedicated region featuring a main stage for the headline acts, a second “Psychedelic Circle” (or PsyCircle) stage for DJ parties, a small marketplace area and a beach camp site where festival attendees can kick-back and simply enjoy the atmosphere. Over the three days of the event, a quite eclectic mix of music will be presented from acoustic / vocals through to synthpop and cyberpunk rock, going by way of electric blues, rock, metal, dubstep, psytrance and more. Given this mix, I asked Mania how the festival arrived at its line-up.
“Well, the basic idea has always been to gather, in our opinion, best and most impressive artists of Second Life on our stage over the one weekend,” she replied. “Of course, because we’re looking for acts, our personal taste plays a role; but we start several months ahead of each festival, scouting around, asking those we’ve particularly liked if they would come back and perform. When we find cool acts we hadn’t previously come across, we invite them as well.”
She continued, “We’re also looking for new acts, or those who haven’t previously appeared at SUF. So this year, for example, we’re featuring Yadleen, a German composer who has only been performing in SL for the last four months. But our main objective is to create a special event with special acts. And it’s always nice when we can bring acts who are not often to see in SL; this year, for example, we’re delighted to have Nnoiz Papp and Cyberpiper performing on stage!”
All of which adds up to an interesting mix – so, if you’re in the mood for music this weekend, why not drop in to Shivers Unleashed? Check the schedule below for acts and session times (all in SLT), and check-out the artists and bands in the Festival Guide. You can also catch a preview video for this years acts on YouTube.
Friday, July 8th – Live Sets
| 10:00 | Dje Atolia (France) |
| 11:00 | Psiquence |
| Noon | Wolfie and the Bad Reputation (Gibraltar) |
| 13:00 | UKD Project (Italy) |
| 14:00 |
Plastik Guitar (Portugal) |
Saturday, July 9th – Live Sets
| 08:00 | Deceptions Digital (Germany) |
| 09:00 | Paris Cloyd (USA) |
| 10:00 | Bolt (South Africa) |
| 11:00 | Switchboard of Souls (USA) |
| Noon |
Nnoiz Papp (Germany) |
| 13:00 | Cyberpiper (Luxembourg) |
| 14:00 |
Paris Obscur and Lisa Brune (France) |
Sunday, July 10th – Live Sets
| 08:00 | The Black Stripes (Japan) |
| 09:00 | Aminius Writer (Germany) |
| 10:00 | Zoz Quandry (UK) |
| 11:00 | Yadleen (Germany) |
| Noon |
Option Y (USA) |
| 13:00 | Cellshader (USA) |
| 14:00 |
Red Heaven (Canada) |
Weekend DJ Sets – PsyCircle
| Friday 15:00 |
Lunna Darwinian |
| Friday 16:00 |
Minna Freedom |
| Friday 17:00 |
TBA |
| Saturday 15:00 |
GreySunshine |
| Saturday 16:00 |
Saaryi Ossic |
| Saturday 17:00 |
Annie of Fractal Psy |
| Saturday 18:00 |
TBA |
| Sunday 15:00 |
Chillout |
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 