North American esports organisation XSET has announced a partnership with the Breakaway Music Festival. The deal will see the two brands collaborate on numerous activations during the Breakaway festival in Boston, including gaming on the festival stages and customised merchandise drops.
Breakaway Music Festival is a touring festival in the United States, founded in Ohio in 2016. The festival will have seven stops this year, and will feature artists such as Zedd, Flume and Porter Robinson. This is not the first time that the festival has worked with esports brands, having partnered with esports company ReKTGlobal in 2021.
In a short interview with Esports Insider, XSET CEO Greg Selkoe noted that this is the first time the organisation has worked on a project of this kind. Breakaway visitors will be able to compete in games, as well as participate in meet and greets and live streams.
Music acts are also expected to participate in gaming sessions on festival stages, and music sets will include nods to gaming culture by using video game soundtracks and 8bit samples.
Selkoe also said that members of Queens Gaming Collective, a company XSET recently acquired, will also be involved in the activations in Boston. Further plans are in motion to work on more festival stops in the following year.
“XSET team members and talent will be on the ground at the festival and our top priority will be to interact with those in attendance,” Selkoe said.
“We plan to accomplish this through a mix of meet and greets and gameplay itself. Our team and talent love seeing how intertwined gaming is with lifestyle, and this event is the perfect place to get involved, hands-on, and see it all in real life and real-time.”
Breakaway Music Festival Co-Founder and President Adam Lynn added that the aim of the partnership is to leverage XSET’S gaming community and technology to help the festival reach ‘new frontiers’.
The activations that are planned are set to showcase the festival to a different demographic, and will help grow the festival in the future, explained Lynn.
“This strategic partnership brings together two very like-minded brands in two adjacent and frequently overlapping spaces, it is a natural fit,” Lynn said. “Our mission is to provide music lovers with a one-of-a-kind experience that allows them to connect through music and now gaming.”
