Jean Michel Jarre To Host VR NYE Concert At Notre-Dame de Paris

Jean-Michel Jarre is working with VR startup VRrOOm to host a virtual reality New Year’s Eve concert at the historic Notre-Dame de Paris.

The concert, dubbed “Welcome to the Other Side,” will be presented for free in partnership with the City of Paris under the patronage of UNESCO. A Radio broadcast will be available on France Inter; a television broadcast will be available on BFM Paris; the livestream will be available on Facebook and YouTube; and the VR immersion experience will be available on VR Chat. 

The Notre-Dame de Paris, the landmark French cathedral that was severely damaged in a fire in 2019, but Jean-Michel Jarre will be using that cathedral as his VR canvas to ring in the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. The 45-minute set will feature Jarre’s virtual avatar performing in a VR world lush with mixed media and will draw from his GRAMMY-nominated album Electronica.

“Virtual reality is to the performing arts today what cinema was to the theatre in its early days, a kind of curiosity,“ Jean-Michel Jarre said in a statement.  “I believe that VR will become tomorrow, a mode of expression in its own right.”