Finland turned to virtual reality to compensate for some of the lost celebrations due to the coronavirus.
May Day is a major holiday in Finland, when people gather outside for parties and concerts. While a mass gathering isn't safe right now because of COVID-19, the city of Helsinki came up with a way to move the celebration online.
The country hasn't been hit especially hard by the coronavirus, but a city-wide party could be a big setback. Traditionlly, as many as a hundred thousand people gather in only a few parks. The city of Helsinki formed a partnership with VR company Zoan, which had already been working on virtual Helsinki, host a concert.
Finland has a population of around six million, and 700,000 viewers tuned into the virtual concert, according to the city of Helsinki, meaning that nearly 12% of the country watched the event. Of those attendees, 150,000 went beyond just watching and created avatars to participate.
Here's what the first virtual May Day was like.
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