Popular NYC music venue Elsewhere is hosting a Minecraft festival for coronavirus relief

Brooklyn's hottest club is Elsewhere, and it's hosting a festival for coronavirus relief set entirely in Minecraft. The event, which is called "Nether Meant", will be held this Saturday, April 11 at 6pm EST and will feature performances from emo band American Football, Nintendocore group Anamanaguchi, electronic artist Baths, and more. In Minecraft, it's safe to hit the clubs.

The sprawling nightclub, which only opened back in 2017, has been painstakingly recreated to scale in Minecraft and will even include the entire American Football team on a virtual stage. The fictional take on Elsewhere will be called Elsewither. The event is being organized by Open Pit, a company well-versed in putting on Minecraft festivals - they've hosted Minecraft versions of Coachella, the Met Gala, and the doomed Fyre Festival. While you can attend the event for free, VIP passes are available that will give you access to special VIP areas in-game, exclusive game merch, and VIP access in Discord, where you can talk directly to the artists. All proceeds from the VIP pass sales will go to Good360's COVID-19 relief efforts.

For details on how to get into the club - which is only on the PC version of Minecraft - head here, or read below:

• You must own the Minecraft Java Edition, not the Bedrock Edition, as the servers will be on Java Edition 1.15.2.
• Launch the game and click Multiplayer on the main menu.
• Click Add Server and enter play.elsewither.club into the Server Address bar.
• Enable Server Resource Pack, click Done, and double-click the server to join.

The show will be streamed in its entirety on the site linked above and virtually on Twitch, as well.

As someone who lives in Bushwick and has attended shows at Elsewhere, this is an incredibly cool thing to see. Elsewhere is a refurbished venue in the heart of the "coolest" neighborhood in Brooklyn, well-known as a haven for off-beat yet well-established indie artists from across the musical spectrum and a safe-space for all members of the community. The venue itself is particularly unique to the scene, simply for its immense size, and it's arguably one of the best in Brooklyn, with DJ rooms, a rooftop space, and a large main hall that has hosted the likes of Pussy Riot, Wavves, Gold Panda, and more. 

This is a really cool thing, guys, and it's for a fantastic cause. I'll catch you on the virtual floor this Saturday, April 11 - frozen marg in hand.

There's tons of ways the community is stepping up to kick COVID-19's ass, check out the many ways the video game community is helping coronavirus relief efforts.