running a popup! - rizumu @ cloud heart

18 october 2025 - saturday

what is a popup? in general, a popup is a temporary gathering. in the music scene in virtual reality, a popup is an event that is quickly organized with a lineup of DJs to perform either day of or in a short period of time, like several days. this event that i hosted, "rizumu popup at cloud heart", was organized in a matter of days. i had messaged several friends and community members that i have been wanting to hear music from for awhile. this coordination took about 3-4 days. i made the promotional material and used bluesky to spread the word to those in our community.


dithered version of the poster i made for this event

above is the poster that i made for this popup. this version is dithered, with the full version on my actual portfolio site. i made this poster using the world that i planned to have the event in - zekk's "cloud heart", a wispy, cloudlike orb that sends out waves of clouds that are linked to the music playing in world. with the background photo in place, i color-picked colors for the fonts from the photo itself to keep everything in theme. then the placement of the event's info can be decided. i wanted to keep this poster quite simple and minimalist, so i kept most of the details towards the corners and ends of photo. i personally love making the text /mostly/ legible, but sometimes i have to reign myself in from making things look too abstract.


for this event, we had 6 DJs with 30 minute timeslots. this resulted in the event itself being 3 hours long. honestly, that time flies by when the sets are 30 minutes long and the DJs are giving their all like that night! another thing that makes popups great is that they're an awesome time for trying out new things and experimenting with different genres. a few of the DJs mentioned in the group chat for this event that they wanted to play music that they don't normally. for example, pink batman played a lot of really great progressive and melodic house while i have only really known him for bass music and club classics. the laidback atmosphere of the world and the vibe that the DJs provided for this popup made it very enjoyable to sit down and converse with others.

funny moment pictured above, where pink batman had people surround him with clones of a public avatar with DJ decks and speakers. this resulted in a lot of laughs as pink batman turned back and forth, interacting with the crowd as they surrounded him. it's moments like these that popups can create with its relaxed vibe.

sometimes, things don't work out entirely the way we plan. our first DJ, hails, had some internet issues, so rayman had to play an hour instead of 30 minutes. later on, we tried to get hails back on but their connection was not working out. instead, an awesome attendee manualsoap offered to cover their spot with some dubstep. while it very much sucks that we couldn't get one of our original DJs back on, it's very heartwarming when the community gets involved when they can.

popups are honestly my favorite type of music event in virtual reality. i love the organized, fully kitted out events with worlds and themes and custom assets and such, but the relaxed, comfy vibe of popups are great for getting to know the community better and overall casual conversing. i think there's a place for both popups and fully organized events, as i think there will always be people who want either or at certain times. i am very much strongly against the notion that all events need to be perfect or completely polished - it doesn't work that way in real life so why should it in virtual reality? during this popup, i had gotten to meet people in the community, catch up with community members i haven't seen in awhile, and hear really good music from DJs and friends.

there will be more popups from me in the future! or maybe, i'll run an open decks event soon at some point. stay tuned into this blog to know more ;)) see you next time! thanks for reading.


more pics -

jaime playing music while zekk sleeps peacefully

the crowd close to the orb of the world, illuminated by the light blue emissions of the clouds

thistle, jere, and some other friends laying amongst the clouds

if you're interested in joining rizumu events in the future, please check out the info linked below!