https://ift.tt/3Ho3Dc9 celebrates the New Year in Times Square

Decentraland is set to host a New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square from December 31, 2021, at 11 p.m. EST until the early hours of 2022. 

Digital Currency Group (DCG) and global real estate firm Jamestown, owner of One Times Square, are recreating the 26-story tower in the metaverse for the celebrated Ball Drop. 

Decentraland, New Year’s Eve in Times Square in the metaverse

Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Jamestown have reportedly announced a joint partnership to recreate One Times Square in Decentraland and bring to life MetaFest 2022, the New Year’s Eve 2022 celebration in the metaverse. 

“Celebrate New Year’s in Times Square… in Decentraland!”

Essentially, global real estate company Jamestown has snapped up 170 LAND and is the owner of One Times Square, located at -106, -119 on the platform, which is the site of the famous New Year’s Eve Ball Drop celebration. 

On that note, Michael Phillips, president of Jamestown, stated:

“The future of real estate is the thoughtful integration of the virtual and physical worlds, optimized for user experience,” said Michael Phillips, President of Jamestown. “The metaverse is an important part of the evolution of real estate and the built environment. Whereas physical real estate is largely limited to people with geographic proximity, the metaverse can give people around the world meaningful access to places through immersive virtual experiences. Recreating One Times Square in the Decentraland metaverse is part of a larger digital asset strategy to evolve and enhance our physical real estate for Web 3.0 and open new pathways for our assets to exist in multiple metaverses in the future.”

MetaFest 2022: New Year’s Eve in the metaverse 

The virtual One Times Square will launch in Decentraland on December 31, 2021, at 11 p.m. EST and continue through the early hours of 2022.

The idea comes at a time when in real life, the real Times Square ball drop will be limited to 15,000 socially spaced and fully vaccinated participants due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. 

MetaFest 2022 in the Decentraland metaverse, on the other hand, will be global, with music and entertainment, rooftop VIP lounges, CryptoArt galleries featuring NFTs, and immersive games. Not only that, real-world live feeds from Times Square and virtual parties from Zoom will be broadcast on digital billboards, bringing global partygoers together in the metaverse to celebrate the new year.

On that note, Fede Molina, on behalf of the Decentraland Foundation, commented as follows:

“The Decentraland community is ready for this perfect capstone to an incredible year,” said Fede Molina on behalf of the Decentraland Foundation. “We can’t wait to ring in 2022 with friends all over the world and show off how far our ecosystem has come. The partnership between Jamestown and DCG to develop One Times Square embodies the beauty of Decentraland: brands and builders bring their diverse assets and ideas to our virtual world, and, in so doing, enrich the experience for all.”

New Year’s Eve and Fashion Week in the Metaverse

Decentraland seems to be gaining more and more popularity as the go-to metaverse. In fact, in addition to the current announcement of New Year’s Eve in Times Square, it also recently announced that it is partnering with luxury marketplace UNDX to organize Metaverse Fashion Week. 

This is a week of runway shows, pop-ups shops, after parties, and immersive experiences, ready to host NFT collections from the big luxury fashion brands. Metaverse Fashion Week on Decentraland will be March 24-27, 2022. 

UNDX, on the other hand, is the NFT marketplace for the likes of luxury brands such as Dolce&Gabbana, which had launched its 9 NFT collection called Genesis last summer to huge success. 

At the time of writing, MANA, Decentraland’s native token, is ranked 29th by market capitalization, priced at $3.28. This Fall 2021, MANA has seen its price move from a low below $1 in October to its ATH – All-Time High of $5.47 touched last November.