Ariana Grande is twirling atop a marble column in the clouds, in a dress made of shards of mirrored glass, wielding an enormous silver mallet with a diamond as its hammer.

It’s not the real-life Grande, or some bizarre dream, but her avatar performing virtually in Fortnite, the free-to-play online video game with 350 million registered global users that has become known for its in-game music experiences with artists like Marshmello, Travis Scott and J Balvin. Billed as the next iteration of Scott’s “Astronomical” in-game event in April 2020 — which drew 27 million global unique players across five airings — Grande’s appearance kicks off the game’s so-called Rift Tour series, hosting an in-game virtual concert that will air five times over the course of this weekend.

Over the past several years, the music industry has opened its eyes to gaming as a new way to connect with fans and drive revenue. In-game performances offer multiple revenue streams to artists, from up-front payments to virtual goods and a streaming spike for the artist’s music that tends to follow an in-game show.

Compared to “Astronomical,” Grande’s performance is less visually chaotic, with fewer scene changes, and has an expanded focus on the player experience. In Grande’s world — which looks like if the Lisa Frank brand were an entire planet — players aren’t just watching the show, but actively participating in it, a key element that will be part of future experiences, according to Phil Rampulla, head of brand at Epic Games, Fortnite’s parent company.

“You’ll see on this one that there’s a little bit more control if you want it,” Rampulla tells Billboard. “You can go on autopilot and chill out and just take it all in and enjoy the ride. Or you can squad up with friends and really try to unlock things and compete.”

Artist performances within Fortnite have only gotten bigger and better since the game’s first-ever concert with Marshmello in February 2019, which attracted 10.7 million concurrent players. And with a Lady Gaga performance rumored to be coming soon, Epic Games is getting faster at putting together these shows. While Scott’s took over a year to come together, a representative for Epic said that Grande’s took six to nine months, with Rampulla describing it as a “very collaborative and iterative process.”

During the roughly 10-minute experience, players bounce atop hot pink beds of plants as if they were trampolines, fly inside glistening bubbles in the sky as Grande sways in a swing held up by clouds and follow Grande up marble staircases that turn upside-down the higher you go. The flipped view references Grande’s upside-down album covers for Thank U, Next and Sweetener, which the pop star has said symbolized her emotional state at the time, and it’s just one of several Easter eggs The Rift Tour leaves for super-fans — including a virtual version of Grande’s real-life pet pig, Piggy Smallz. Players will experience different effects during the show depending on their choice of avatar outfit or wrap (which changes the appearance of weapons and vehicles), encouraging them to go back for multiple showings.

“It’s hard to really think of anybody better at the moment,” Rampulla says of Grande. Unlike Travis Scott, Grande isn’t publicly involved in the video game community, making her an unorthodox choice for one of the world’s most popular games. “What we always look for in a partner is someone who’s willing to take some risks, someone who’s willing to try something new,” Rampulla says. “We reached out with some of the broad strokes of the ideas and she immediately jumped in and we just took off and the rest is history.” It likely doesn’t hurt that Ariana and Fortnite may benefit from introducing their fanbases to one another either.

At the time of “Astronomical,” an industry source told Billboard that Scott received a multimillion-dollar fee upfront, and that artist deals can also include a back-end bonus once the event reaches certain viewership metrics. That doesn’t include revenue from virtual goods that artists can sell Fortnite players in the form of skins (avatar outfits), gear (for fighting) and emotes (which lend the ability to act out expressions). Sold in Fortnite’s virtual currency, “V-bucks,” Grande’s cosmetics set includes a skin for the equivalent of about $20; a diamond gavel for about $8; a glider for about $12; and a ride-able unicorn for about $5. Players can also purchase a bundle of all these items for about $28. Those purchases add up, but Epic Games declined to reveal how compensation has been handled for Grande.

In the final few minutes of the show, Grande sings “Positions” while floating above ice before smashing it with her giant gavel, sending the artist and the audience back up into the clouds. In the aftermath of the explosion, players hover in the air among rainbows, watching fireworks explode in the surrounding air. Musically, the experience plays like a greatest hits collection, featuring tracks like “Positions,” “REM” and 2013 Mac Miller collaboration “The Way.”

Fortnite was quick to release viewership numbers after the Travis Scott show, but Rampulla wouldn’t commit to releasing numbers around Grande’s weekend in Fortnite. With massive superstars jumping at the opportunity to work with Epic Games, and potentially expand their user base, it doesn’t seem like Fortnite will move away from working with artists anytime soon.

Additional reporting by Micah Singleton

Illinois dispensaries sold a record $127.8 million in recreational marijuana in July, with a big boost coming from out-of-state fans who converged on Chicago for the Lollapalooza music festival.

The month’s sales were 10% higher than May’s record of $116.4 million, which were slightly higher than June’s $115.6 million, according to a monthly report by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Business boomed at Chicago-area cannabis dispensaries during the four-day Lollapalooza festival, which ended Sunday and which returned after last year’s event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Because recreational marijuana was legalized in Illinois in January 2020, pot was legal in the state during Lollapalooza for the first time in the festival’s 30-year history. Although it’s illegal to smoke or otherwise consume the drug in public or around anyone younger than 21 years old, the large crowds at Grant Park boosted sales by as much as 50% at nearby dispensaries in River North and the West Loop, operators told the Chicago Tribune.

“We saw thousands of festivalgoers over the weekend at our River North store, making it our biggest weekend to date,” said Jason Erkes, spokesman for Chicago-based Cresco Labs, whose Sunnyside Dispensary in River North was the closest to the festivities.

In July, Illinois’ 110 dispensaries sold a record 2.8 million recreational weed products. State residents spent about $85 million, while sales to out-of-state customers topped $42 million, up 16% from June, according to the state.

“Summer tourism and the Lollapalooza attendees were strong contributors to July’s out-of-state sales,” Erkes said.

Illinois is one of 18 states that have legalized recreational marijuana use, which is still illegal under federal law. Through July, the state has generated $753 million in recreational cannabis sales, which is more than all of last year.

Total sales reached $1.03 billion last year, including $669 million in recreational weed and more than $366 million in medical marijuana sales.

Illinois has not yet released its medical marijuana sales figures for July.

LONDON – For more than a year, the U.K. live music industry has been campaigning for a government-backed insurance scheme to help festival and concert promoters get back on their feet. On Thursday (Aug. 5), those calls were finally answered when Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak unveiled a 750 million pounds ($1 billion) insurance scheme covering the cost of festival and concert cancellations resulting from COVID-19.

The “Live Events Reinsurance Scheme” enables event organizers in the United Kingdom to purchase cover for government-enforced cancellations, alongside standard commercial events insurance.

Backed by Lloyd’s market insurers Arch, Beazley, Dale, Hiscox and Munich Re, the insurance be available for a 12-month term beginning sometime in September. (The Exchequer, when contacted by Billboard, was unable to say exactly when the scheme will begin.)

The government says it is one of the only insurance schemes in the world to cover such a wide array of live events and not put a cap on costs claimed per event.

Denis Desmond, chairman of Live Nation U.K. and Ireland, says the government-backed protection is a vital intervention that “offers certainty to artists, concert and festival promoters in the live entertainment market.”

“While the new scheme won’t cover all our risk, this intervention will help protect the industry that we all know and love,” says Phil Bowdery, chairman of the Concert Promoters Association.

The program follows the establishment of similar government-backed insurance schemes in a number of other European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Denmark. They provide a much-needed safety net for promoters committing non-recoupable upfront costs for future events amid the uncertainty of a pandemic.

“As the economy reopens, I want to do everything I can to help events providers and small businesses plan with confidence right through to next year,” Sunak says in a statement.

In the event of cancellations resulting from coronavirus restrictions, the government will pay between 95% and 100% of costs accrued with insurers paying the remainder. (Promoters and event organizers will need to pay an agreed excess fee, as per standard insurance deals).

While live execs unanimously welcomed the news, some expressed anger that the government didn’t step in sooner to support the country’s struggling live sector in the way it did for the film and TV industries. A 500 million pounds “Film and TV Production Restart Scheme” has been in place since July 2020 and has provided insurance cover to more than 600 independent film and TV productions to date, says the HM Treasury.

“It is devastating that the timings of this scheme could not have been earlier,” says Michael Kill, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association. He points to the large number of U.K. festivals that have been forced to cancel over the past year — many citing the lack of insurance as a determining factor.

According to the Association of Independent Festivals, more than half of all U.K. festivals scheduled to take place in 2021 have been cancelled this year because of the pandemic. Big-name casualties include Glastonbury, BST Hyde Park, Download and Kendal Calling.

Paul Reed, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals, says the introduction of COVID-19 cancellation insurance was a positive development for the industry. But he cautioned that it doesn’t cover events needing to reduce capacity or cancel due to social distancing restrictions being reintroduced.

Nevertheless, British execs are cautiously optimistic that the tide is now turning for the beleaguered live industry and that better times are ahead.

The U.K. lifted its last remaining COVID-19 restrictions on July 19, opening the door for full-capacity shows, nightclubs, and festivals to return. Latitude Festival, held in Suffolk July 22-25 and headlined by Bastille, Bombay Bicycle Club, Wolf Alice, and The Chemical Brothers, was the first major music event to take place since the end of lockdown. It was attended by around 40,000 people as part of the COVID-19 Events Research Program.

Tentpole events scheduled to take place later this summer include the 185,000-capacity dual-site Reading and Leeds festivals headlined by Liam Gallagher, Stormzy and Post Malone, and the 70,000-capacity Creamfields, which features David Guetta, deadmau5, Alesso and Martin Garrix.