A popular turn to online live music in response to the COVID-19 pandemic included the staging of so-called virtual music festivals, including Splendour XR, an ‘extended reality’ version of Australia’s largest ticketed music festival in 2021. Where the ‘liveness’ of online performance is now broadly accepted, a virtual music festival necessarily makes a more ambitious claim, as popular music festivals are valued for their construction of certain types of place affording particular kinds of experience. This article considers this claim in light of the history and meaning of popular music festivals, including the role of mediating technologies, before presenting a case study of Splendour XR drawing on primary research at the event. The article explores key issues for the online delivery of popular music festivals including the negotiation of liveness, the construction of place and the music festival experience.