The Weeknd to Headline New Fortnite Music Experience ‘The Weeknd x Fortnite Festival’: Watch Trailer

Gil Kaufman
·2 min read
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The Weeknd stars in a new trailer for Festival, a game from Rock Band studio Harmonix in which the singer — who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye — is the headliner in a music-experience slated to launch inside Fortnite on Saturday (Dec. 9).

Like Harmonix’s most beloved games, Festival lets fans tap notes along to the song playing in the game as they watch the Weeknd rock the stage, with users able to either jam with the band or take a solo.

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The 44-second trailer opens with the sound of thumping dance club bass swirling around a hooded figure who reaches out his hand into the light, which transports him to an actual club. The mysterious figure — wearing a shiny Dr. Doom-style metal mask — slowly makes his way to the stage as a punk-haired audience member tosses a microphone into the air. The high-energy clip ends with the digital image of Tesfaye, who wears different skins while dancing on stage to his Dawn FM song “Take My Breath,” as he’s backed by a futuristic band.

According to Hypebeast, leaks of the game promise that The Weeknd x Fortnite Festival will feature a new microphone design, two new bass designs, three songs, a keytar design and a Weeknd skin available through a Festival Pass.

The Weeknd is the latest artist to team up with Fortnite for a music event, following on the heels of virtual concerts by the likes of Eminem, Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, Marshmello and Kid Cudi. In April, Coachella also teamed up with Fortnite for a game called Coachella Island, which featured a virtual world inside the Fortnite universe with mini-games, Coachella-themed merch, art installations and virtual versions of some of the beloved festival’s iconic ferris wheel and trippy Spectra building.

Fortnite Festival is the first specifically music-focused mode in the game that has been downloaded more than 129 million times on the App Store and Google Play.

Check out the Weekend x Fortnite Festival trailer below.

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