Following in the footsteps of "Fortnite," "The Sims 4" will host its own in-game music festival in July. The festival, titled "The Sims Sessions," will be headlined by Bebe Rexha, a two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter whose hits include "I'm a Mess" and "Meant to Be. Rexha is said to be premiering a new song at the festival, sung exclusively in Simlish, the fictional language of the Sims. This is interesting.

Supporting Rexha will be Dave Bailey of Glass Animals, who will perform the band's single "Heat Waves. I'm not sure why, because I stopped listening to new music about 10 years ago and still consider Radiohead's "In Rainbows" to be a new album. That said, the lineup seems pretty impressive for a gig that takes place inside EA's virtual people simulator.

According to the event's webpage, in addition to listening to the artists, players attending Sims Sessions can "camp out" (the in-game store page recommends "Woohooing" to the music), or they can "camp out" after the main artists have finished their sets on stage after they have finished, shop at festival stalls, run their own table, and purchase "artist-themed merchandise". It is not clear whether in-game currency or actual currency will be used to make these purchases, but I'm betting on the latter.

Frankly, the whole thing sounds a bit odd. The idea of attending a concert in a video game seems odd anyway, and I'm not sure why anyone would want to sit in front of a screen and listen to a pop star avatar sing a song in a nonsense language. The Sims has a history regarding this latter, and seems to have partnered with nearly 500 artists to record their songs in Simlish since 2004.

But getting them to attend live events specifically to hear their songs is another matter. Fortnite has shown that there is a market for this kind of thing, but is this because people genuinely like attending concerts in a virtual world, or simply because they like doing something with their friends in Fortnite?

However, that is not to say that this idea is not interesting. The festival runs from June 29 through July 7. Details can be found on the Sims Sessions page, but there are no instructions on how to actually participate in the festival.