ESPERA VRChat Music Festival Nov 20-22: Lineup, Tickets and How to Join
Information as of October 28, 2026. Dates and prices come from the organizers’ ticket page and press coverage listed in Sources; check them again before buying.
At a glance
- What: ESPERA -AdHoc Live Festival 2026-, a three-day virtual music festival held inside VRChat.
- When: Friday November 20 to Sunday November 22, 2026. November 20 and 21 are free; November 22 is a paid show whose planned schedule is doors at 13:30 and start at 14:00 JST.
- Who: Nine acts have been announced, including Kizuna AI (see the lineup section for the full list).
- Tickets for the paid day: 15,000 yen (S ticket), 4,000 yen (VRChat on-site ticket) and 3,000 yen (streaming ticket with archive), all tax included and with separate fees.
- Organizers: RIOT MUSIC (producer and operator) and Culture Entertainment, with the XR studio MIGIRI supporting production.
The video above is a separate VRChat live concert (theALL 2026 DAY1), included only to show what a music event inside VRChat looks like. It is not part of ESPERA.
What ESPERA is trying to be
According to the original announcement on September 28, 2026, ESPERA is meant to bring together three scenes that often overlap but rarely share one stage: internet music centered on VOCALOID, the music culture that has grown up inside VRChat, and performances by VTubers and other virtual artists. The name is intended to express “hope.” Japanese outlet KAI-YOU describes it as RIOT MUSIC’s first three-day virtual event.
RIOT MUSIC is an agency focused on virtual artists. KAI-YOU reports that it runs the label Mugenshou Records and the VTuber support project RIONECTION and is connected to Brave group, the company behind VSPO!. Since February 2026 it has concentrated on VRChat through a permanent world called AdHoc, where it has held music performances and talk events. Per the press release, that world had reached about 50,000 cumulative visits and its VRChat group had more than 3,700 members as of September 2026. ESPERA is the expanded, festival-sized version of that experiment.
The lineup
Mogura VR’s October 26 report lists nine acts, in no particular order: Suu Kiu, VESPERBELL Yomi, Kizuna AI, Harusaru Hi, Tsukishiro Rui, Shirakawa Shirase, Shikibu Meguri, Doukou & Sakuju, and kaza. The English spellings follow the English edition of that report and may differ from each act’s own romanization. A detailed timetable has not been published yet and is described as coming later, so it is not yet clear which acts play on which of the three days.
For readers who know the field mainly through agency VTubers, Kizuna AI is the most recognizable name here. She is one of the best-known early virtual YouTuber personas, and her operating company has its own page on this site: Kizuna AI Inc..
How the paid show on November 22 works
The two free days are open to anyone with VRChat. The paid show on November 22 is where the festival’s technical idea shows. According to Mogura VR, the artists’ audio, motion and staging are streamed in real time to every instance, so attendance is not limited by the usual per-instance caps, and each ticket buyer can create their own instance and invite friends. The S ticket adds a special same-instance experience in which your avatar can appear in the performing artist’s view, and it is sold in limited quantity.
- S ticket, 15,000 yen: same-instance experience with the artists; sales end November 22 at 20:00 JST.
- VRChat on-site ticket, 4,000 yen: entry to the VRChat venue; sales end November 22 at 22:00 JST.
- Streaming ticket, 3,000 yen: watch through the ZAIKO player on a PC or smartphone, with archive viewing until November 29 at 20:59 JST; sales end the same moment.
Tickets are sold on the ZAIKO page run by RIOT MUSIC (see Sources). The ticket page says purchases cannot be refunded, changed or cancelled except when the organizer postpones or cancels the event, that problems on the VRChat or network side are not refunded, and that recording the stream is prohibited while screenshots are allowed.
Notes for readers outside Japan
The planned start of the paid show is 14:00 JST on Sunday November 22. That is 05:00 UTC (and 05:00 in London), 06:00 in Central Europe, midnight at the start of November 22 in New York and 21:00 on Saturday November 21 in Los Angeles, using standard time in all of those places. The streaming ticket includes archive viewing, which makes it the practical option if the live time is inconvenient.
- VRChat attendance needs a PC or PCVR. The ticket page states that standalone Meta Quest headsets and smartphones cannot enter the venue.
- Streaming: the ticket page recommends current Safari or Chrome on phones, a current browser on Windows 10 or later or macOS, and lists minimum connection speeds of 2 Mbps for 360p, 6 Mbps for 1080p and 20 Mbps for 4K.
- Language and payment: the ticket page we reviewed is in Japanese. It does not say whether overseas cards or payment methods are supported, so confirm at checkout before relying on it.
What we don’t know yet
- Which acts perform on which day, and the detailed timetable.
- Whether the two free days include a livestream for people who do not use VRChat.
- Whether the organizers will provide English-language ticket instructions or support for overseas payment.
- Exact set lists or performance formats for each act.
What to watch next
Follow the AdHoc official X account (@AdHoc_RM), which the organizers named as the channel for upcoming announcements, and check the ticket page before November 22.
Related
- Kizuna AI
- How overseas fans can watch VTuber concerts: tickets, streaming and archives
- How to Buy and Watch a Japanese VTuber Concert Stream: SPWN and Streaming+ Explained
Sources
- Mogura VR (October 26, 2026): ESPERA lineup and ticket announcement
- ZAIKO ticket page for ESPERA -AdHoc Live Festival 2026- (RIOT MUSIC)
- Mogura VR (English edition): festival announcement
- PR TIMES press release: MIGIRI production of ESPERA
- KAI-YOU (September 28, 2026): ESPERA announcement and RIOT MUSIC background
Reviewed by WVR Inoue on October 28, 2026. See our editorial standards.
Thumbnail: 【#vrchat ライブ】 『#theALL 2026 DAY1』 #ALLVERSE #4k by Virtual Music Project -ALLVERSE- Channel on YouTube. Shown via YouTube; all rights belong to their owners.