vTubers and vocaloids
Dazzling new international anime music festival heads to Houston with global rave faves
Attention all anime fans: A major, global festival is heading to Houston to rock out with some of the biggest superstars in the genre.
The inaugural International Anime Music Festival heads to H-Town's 713 Music Hall on Sunday, February 26, 2023 as part of a 37-city trek across North America starting February 6. The appropriately titled fest also heads to Irving, Texas at the Toyota Music Factory on Saturday, February 25.
Following the North American jaunt, the festival will journey across Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America in 2023.
What makes this different from other anime events? The International Anime Music Festival showcases characters on state-of-the-art LED and high-definition digital projections. A major draw: for the first time, popular VTubers (virtually generated animated YouTubers) and wildly popular Vocaloids (virtual singers with computer generated voices) will appear on stage together.
Die-hard fans can expect a live, DJ-led multimedia concert rave starring Kizuna AI Original Singerloid “#kzn,” vocal duo HIMEHINA, vocal trio MaRiNaSu, the North American debut of fan favorite GUMI, and pop twins LiLYPSE.
“I am excited to work with this extraordinary visually exciting art form,” said producer Marty Tudor in a press release announcing the event. “The energy that this group of virtual artists has is amazing and incites the best of our superb creative team. This show will be a blast!”
Music selects will feature new tunes and never-before-seen content performed by the fan-favorite, superstar avatars that originated in Japan and have exploded globally over the past two years. By the numbers, these characters generate more than 62 million Google searches and more than 1.2 billion views (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and others).
“I feel honored and privileged to be working with the talented IP holders and character creators of the five acts appearing on our International Anime Music Festival,” producer Bob Ringe noted in a statement. “The response from the anime community and anime creators worldwide has exceeded my expectations. See you all at the festival!”
Artist presale starts today; tickets for all North American shows go on sale at 10 am Friday, November 4 online.
