Download Dog Gets His Teeth Into Second Life

Download Dog, the mascot of Download Festival, Britain’s largest alternative music festival, has for the very first time been let loose in the internet-based, virtual world Second Life. The Second Life Download Dog is unique in its design, specifically animated as an interactive avatar.

The communities built within Second Life and the Download Festival are an essential factor in both of their success. Second Life now boast an online community of over 6 Million, and each year has seen the Download festival increase its audience now bringing together 80,000 dedicated fans to Donington Park each June. This massive Download audience has been key to forming their online community that meets each year to provide feedback and shape the future of the festival.

Using only independent artisans and existing locations within Second Life, the competition works like a treasure hunt, the first within the metaverse. Users will have to follow a trail left by the Download Dog to be entered into a prize-draw to win an Epiphone Les Paul guitar, signed artists playing the festival this year.

Organisers have been working extensively with the Second Life community to bring this competition together and the Download Dog’s avatar has been created by Nomasha Syaka, who is regarded as the most talented sculptor and builder in Second Life.

Festival director, Stuart Galbraith said: “Having the Download Dog integrated into Second Life is a fantastic opportunity for both communities to interact and bring the Download Festival to a world wide audience. Our online community has made Download Festival the essential event that it is today and bringing this to a wider audience is a concept that is extremely exciting.”

Rohan Freeman of The Sine Wave Company, who are involved in the Dog’s venture into Second Life said of the competition “Second Life has tens of thousands rock and alternative fans doing weird and wonderful things. When Live Nation wanted to run a competition for all their people, it was easy to bring everything together and draw on the creativity of lots of people all at once. Second Life is a community, and the people building it care about that community. Feedback from citizens I am dealing with is excellent. Because we are getting them involved.”

To enter go to Downloadfestival.co.uk/competition/secondlife.asp.

This year’s Download Festival, taking place between 8 and 10 June sees My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden headline, and is set to be the biggest and best yet.

The competition begins on Tuesday 15 May with the winner being announced on Thursday 7 June on the Download Festival website, Downloadfestival.co.uk.

There are more ticket packages available this year than for any other festival in the UK. By choosing from the following packages, festival-goers can choose how they want to experience the festival this year…

- Weekend Arena Ticket PLUS Camping - £145 + booking fee
- Weekend Arena Ticket - £125 + booking fee
- Day Ticket - £60 plus booking fee
- Campervan supplement - £40 + booking fee
- Parking £6 for the weekend (£10 on the day)
- Lockers £6

Tickets are available from Downloadfestival.co.uk or Ticketrush.co.uk.

As the official website, Downloadfestival.co.uk contains all information about camping, accommodation and all the packages, as well as information on the transport facilities available.