Virtual eSports Project, or Vspo for short, saw a successful real life collaboration event in the Kanda Myojin Summer Festival, seeing over 50,000 attendees over its duration. Vspo is a VTuber group focused on esports as you might guess from the name, with the Kanda Myojin Summer Festival being an event where they fused traditional Japanese culture with a digital IP.
The event took place 11 – 14 August 2022, with the festival itself being no stranger to anime collaborations. Vspo’s first foray into the offline space saw great success over the 3 days it was opened, as the unfavourable weather conditions did not allow for the festival to run on 13 August. While there were some who came simply to enjoy the festival atmosphere, Vspo fans were not to be outdone, showing up in character-specific happi, light jackets typically worn for festivals draped over them.
Naturally, there were other traditional festival-themed goods for fans to purchase on-site, featuring Vspo members dressed as shrine maidens. Besides Vspo members themselves showing up for the event, fans also attended a free concert performed by Palette Project. They too had more performances scheduled that had to be cancelled due to weather conditions, but fans made up for that in spirit.
Both fans and regular audience alike were still able to enjoy the Kanda Myojin Summer Festival despite the weather. The festive spirit can’t be stopped, as attendees have proven!