hololive Down Under Treats Australian Fans to Historic VTubing Concert

In front of around 4,000 fans at DreamHack Melbourne, hololive Down Under was a gamble.

The hallmark performance of the three day DreamHack Melbourne convention, the Japanese VTubing juggernaut had some convincing to do to a crowd of general gaming and pop culture fans.

But with one of their most electric performances ever, they got everyone out of their seats and onto the bandwagon.

The April 27 one-hour concert was a treat for all. It was a similar scale production to Connect The World, hololive’s first overseas concert. But with a roaring crowd in Rod Laver Arena, the emotion was up ten-fold.

Least of all because of Hakos Baelz, the flagbearer, breaking down into tears in the final interlude just before Shiny Smily Story.

“This is the very first 3D Live hololive has done in Australia,” she said, “and it means a lot to me because I’ve always wanted to perform on a stage on home soil. We did the meet and greet and I met so many great Australians. 

“Thank you for making my dream come true.”

It was a setlist full of iconic tracks. Bae, Mori Calliope and Tokoyami Towa opened up proceedings with Myth original song Journey of a Thousand Years, before it was Kureiji Ollie’s turn to pump up the audience with an upbeat idol-like performance of Jollie Jollie.

While there was no Treasure Box for Aussie fans, there was still plenty of love from Houshou Marine with Bishoujo Muzai Pirates, while Pavolia Reine made her introduction with a duet cover of Moona Hoshinova’s High Tide with Towa.

Everyone got their time in the spotlight with solo originals: Wanted, Wasted from Calli was a particular crowd favorite as everyone practically danced in their seats. Hakos Baelz also got a raucous applause when she came up for MESS. Towa’s Palette was much-needed tenderness in an action-packed set.

The definite highlight of the evening was the penultimate track, Blue Clapper. Reine, Ollie and Marine had everyone clapping on tune, thundering through Rod Laver and bleeding out into the Counter-Strike 2 tournament in Margaret Court Arena meters away.

On the ground, it was a monumental occasion for Peter Du, Head of Project Management at ESL Australia, the organizers of DreamHack Melbourne. 

“I was in absolute awe when I saw the crowd,” he told VTuber NewsDrop. “Not only was I taken aback by the sheer number of fans that came out to support the concert, but the energy and passion they brought to the show was infectious. 

“It truly felt like I was watching a hololive concert in Japan, with the crowd equipped with their penlights, plushies and banners of their oshis.

“All of the fans ⁠— whether existing fans or newly converted on the day ⁠— singing, chanting and waving their penlights in unison, really shows that we built something that the community could get behind and something that we can be proud of achieving.”

While hololive has attended other Australian conventions before ⁠— namely SMASH, Crunchyroll Expo and Animaga ⁠— DreamHack was on another level to their past appearances. 

The growth from event to event, and now a successful show at a broader gaming convention, shows Australia has a hungry appetite for more VTubers.

“VTubing deserves a place in Australia's convention space alongside traditional content creators,” Du continued. "The VTubing community is only going to continue to grow, and we are very happy that we were able to showcase their talent at this year's DreamHack Melbourne event.

“It is only a matter of time until VTubers are sharing stages with other creators at every major convention, and we are honored to have hopefully helped push this cause just a little further forward on the weekend.

“We had a number of local VTubers as part of our group of Creators, there were VTubers streaming from the Stream Studio and there were panels about the VTubing process to help those new to the space.”