Fantasy festival

Adidas pitches its virtual tent down under

What?: Adidas and Vice magazine have teamed up on a promotion in Australia that lets users create their own virtual music festival via a pixel graphics game. The Adidas Originals Festival game gives users Aus$100K to spend on orchestrating their festival, from choosing the line-up (from a selection of 200 bands) and naming the event, to creating promotional material, booking the venue and hosting an after party. Once your festival lineup is booked, you’ll need to spread the word via whichever outlet generates the most numbers of visitors.

The overall wining creation – decided by which festival receives the greatest virtual attendance – will receive a trip for two to the Berlin Festival 2008 and a shopping spree at the Adidas Originals store in the city.

So what?: This is your big chance to play at being a virtual Michael Eavis, select a lineup, build 60ft walls around your festival and wait for the virtual downpour. This is a quirky game but how this all ties into Adidas shoes is still somewhat unclear. Werther’s Orignals are original, but the average granddad doesn’t make a music connection when he pops one in his mouth.

“As a pure game, this works. The notion of ‘fantasy festival’ should appeal to music lovers and it’s a simple premise. As a music platform, it could work harder. Perhaps they could have looked to develop fresh content for the site, or offered some kind of pay-off in terms of original music, in return for your time. The aesthetic choices? A little baffling.”
Anthony Swede, Creative Planner, FRUKT

www.originalsfestival.com.au