What would you do if you could travel back in time to 2010? Tell students not to vote Lib Dem? Convince Trump that presidency just isn’t worth the hassle? Invest in Bitcoin? Tell you what I’d do; I’d reassure my braces-toting, acne-ridden, twelve-year-old self with this unfathomable sentence: “Don’t worry kid, give it ten years and Minecraft’s servers will be the coolest place you can be”. In scenes resembling the plot of a bad YA novel, the internet’s favourite pop stars are gathering inside a video game to bring you some respite from the pandemic-enforced siege all we’re all living under.

Hot off the success of last Saturday’s ‘Nether Meant’ (which raised over $8,000 for Good360’s COVID-19 relief efforts), virtual event masterminds Open Pit have made good on their promise that “more [was] to come soon”. ‘Square Garden’ – which will take place at 11pm BST on 24th April – will be their second Minecraft-based festival in under a fortnight, this time in support of the charity Feeding America. 

The event is fittingly being co-hosted by post-genre (hell, maybe even post-music???) duo 100 gecs, who legend has it played their very first ‘live’ gig at the Minecraft festival ‘Coalchella’ back in September 2018. The group are also headlining alongside Charli XCX, Cashmere Cat & Benny Blanco. The rammed setlist dwarfs ‘Nether Meant’ in both scale and scope, boasting electropop outfit Kero Kero Bonito, as well as PC Music staples A.G. Cook, GFOTY, Danny L Harle, and umru. ‘Square Garden’ looks to cement Open Pit as the kings of this year’s inevitable online festival circuit. I, for one, welcome our new cyberspace overlords.

For those who don’t own a copy of Minecraft, you can stream the event via 100 gec’s YouTube channel and website.