If you missed the first-ever Dogecoin music festival, Dogepalooza, you’re not alone.
Around 90% of people who actually bought a ticket in advance DIDN’T show up. Have you ever heard of that before? I’ve never heard of that before. What does that look like? It looks like a mostly empty stadium. However, it only takes one meme to change the world and there were over 300 Doge meme-ster shibes present… so that’s still a universe-bending vibe all within 300 sq yards of space.
If you don’t know me, which I don’t expect you to yet... I’m Rito Rhymes, infotaining rapper by day armed with punchlines, parody, spoken word wits that relay, infotaining entermation in an unconventional way… and yes that’s me in the dog mask with nerd-taped sunglasses on. I was a performer at Dogepalooza doing a spoken word rap explaining the Dogecoin Foundation’s projects and direction for promoting utility over investment hype as well as debuting some of my parody crypto music.
And yes, the image below is the full view of the background behind me at the event.
But as you can see below, this is also what you missed out on…
It was actually something of a magical experience.
Filled with rich Dogey vibes…
Everything Doge…
Despite much of the space being empty and barren… those that arrived felt alive with the love of Doge in the air and… with like-minds they celebrated Doge and rode in Dogeclarens (yes I awkwardly half-rhymed that).
The Dogecoin community, historically on Reddit and Twitter, is essentially an online community. Much of the magic that has happened throughout has been behind keyboards and avatars.
Here we had people AFK and IRL…
Some friends in the community that had known each other and interacted online for years actually met for the first time ever in person. Julia Love on Twitter Spaces said of the experience “it was so incredible to meet people who I’ve interacted with for so long now and to see each other’s faces” then described the importance of IRL interactions as a unique way of unifying the community as it “humanizes the person on the other side of that tweet.”
People have become internet-famous within the Dogecoin community, like for example Lil Mook and his online sensation song “Dogecoin to the Moon.” Here people had the ethereal privilege to actually see and hear it performed live… in a way that was perhaps NEVER intended.
https://twitter.com/Lilmook4real/status/1518720625744957445
The Dogecoin Foundation showed up IRL to represent too
Even politicians showed up to share Dogey love
We’ve seen many celebrities talk about Dogecoin on social media, including Snoop Dogg famously dubbing himself “Snoop Doge,” and that’s been great at bringing exposure to the community and eco-system, but something different took place here.
What’s perhaps most notable of Dogepalooza is the precedent that’s been established here by professional and influential musicians showing up IRL for Doge.
While there was a broad roster of talents and experiences (for some this was their first festival rodeo) there were actually
White Sun, winners of the 2017 Grammy for New Age Album of the Year, manifested themselves on stage for a transcendental and gleamingly splendid performance IRL.
Damon Elliott AKA DJ Nomad, winner of a 2001 Grammy for his work on the smash-hit movie Moulin Rouge and nominated many other times for his stellar productions, performed a thrilling set and even let me impromptu dance on stage and accidentally break the mic stand in the process… 😂 yes that happened and I’ll be paying for it in $Đoge! https://twitter.com/Rito_Rhymes/status/1518361934831230977
Artists with record deals from Universal Music Group showed up like Trill Will & NoxBond (who collab as TrillBond) and brought a powerfully energetic gravitas to the stage.
Now there’s a precedent for all crypto events, music and beyond, Dogecoin and beyond. When major artists and media personalities are seeing an opportunity and thinking to themselves, "it’s a crypto music festival, do we take it seriously or not?”
It’s already been taken seriously by artists who have won major accolades from the highest industry standards and signed by the biggest players in the game.
Along with plenty of fresh and up-and-coming talent who show up to perform for the great vibes offered by the Dogecoin community IRL.
Last but not least who showed up, in a special way, she deserves an IMMENSE amount of respect and praise…
The headliner, 8-time Grammy winning legend Dionne Warwick.
She actually did NOT show up IRL because she was having emergency surgery… and she apparently tried to fight the doctors orders to attend anyway because she cared so much about it!
After following good medical advice to stay-put, she ended up recording a wonderful video dedicated to the Dogepalooza-goers that we all watched on the jumbotron at the end of the event. She is MUCH WOW and so is her son Damon Elliot for being able to push through and perform his set despite the immense scare of his mother’s emergency health crisis.
But what do we say to the many many people who paid for tickets but didn’t show up?
THANK YOU SO MUCH REGARDLESS!
At the end of the day, this was a charitable event… paid tickets went to charity no matter what. Dogepalooza founder Greg Humble has speculated several contributing factors to the low turnout including that people who didn’t purchase flights when they got their tickets during the COVID delta wave may not have been prepared for the exponentially increased airline costs closer to the event or how multiple competing events sprouted up last minute in the Houston area giving people too many choices. Either way, life happens and whatever statistical anomaly took place to cause so many people to be absent at once, it would have been great to have performed live for you, but (since everyone didn’t ask for refunds) the event still served its charitable purpose anyway!
So if ever asked “Who showed up to support disabled veterans, research to cure serious diseases or caring for animals in need?”
Dogepalooza and the shibes of Dogecoin did.
Much Wow!
All event photographs here were taken by Brayhan Alvarado; check him out on Instagram as @bbrriiaann1 and book him for your next event!