Lisbon is gearing up for the return of the Non-Fungible Conference (NFC) Summit, set to bring the web3 community together in the vibrant city from May 28-30.
This year, NFC is not just a singular event but a super festival, sprawling across notable venues from the Carlos Lopes Pavilion to the sun-soaked beaches of Costa da Caparica. With a bold blend of art, fashion, gaming, and digital discourse, the festival is poised to draw a global audience, featuring thought leaders, creatives, and enthusiasts at the forefront of web3.
NFC 2024 promises a dynamic interplay of five distinct yet interconnected events designed to cater to different areas of the digital and cultural zeitgeist. From MemeCon, a new conference dedicated entirely to meme culture, to R3d Carpet, an AI-driven fashion and film festival that merges cinematic grandeur with digital artistry, the festival offers a diverse array of attractions. Add to that the forward-thinking discussions at Ordinals Lisbon and pulsating Off Moga beach parties, and attendees are in for an immersive and multifaceted experience.
nft now will return to NFC Summit as a media partner for the second year running, hosting a main-stage programming segment that will include a fireside chat on Sovereignty and the Now Network and panel discussions with leading digital artists.
We caught up with NFC founder John Karp and chief curator Grida to learn more about what’s in store.
nft now: Tell us a bit about the expansion of the conference. What’s the vision there?
John Karp: I really wanted to build NFC with a second concept. We are striving to do the same as we try to change the business model and how we organize things. This is why we try to not only have panels and booths but also create something much more interactive that brings people together, making them say, “I want to attend these conferences, I want to go to these tools,” because it’s not just something they can find online. We aim to offer a memorable experience, highlighting the experiential aspect which is pretty important for us.
Last year, we created an immersive room on the main stage, like a music festival, where instead of bands playing every 10-15 minutes, we had artists performing shows, gaming experiences, and even immersive parties. So this is the main idea we started last year, and this year, we’re doing the same but adding more content.
The Non-Fungible Conference will have several evolutions this year. The first point we greatly emphasize is that it’s not just one event. We’ve opened the doors to four other event organizers. It’s not me and Grida, but these people organize their events, and we simply provide the infrastructure to host their events within NFC. With your ticket to NFC, you can access the Non-Fungible Conference and all the NFT stages and exhibitions related to art, fashion, gaming, and other events like MemeCon. MemeCon is essentially the first meme token conference, and I met these two people six months ago who came up with the concept.
“The Non-Fungible Conference will have several evolutions this year… it’s not just one event. We’ve opened the doors to four other event organizers.”
JOHN KARP
They are gathering about 50 different speakers and communities, from BONK to HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu, and many exchanges are partnering with them. They are creating a vibrant, humorous MemeCon vibe. The way they want to do the conference is pretty different, with many activations related to meme tokens, and it’s quite educational. They’re bringing together many people from this universe to party and discover what they are doing.
Then there’s Trevor Owens, who’s organizing the Ordinals Lisbon event to bring all these Ordinals people together. It’s brilliant and super interesting. He said, “Let’s organize an event together,” and it was all set up within a few days. They’re bringing in about 50 different Ordinal speakers from various projects.
We also have an event organized by Claire McGuire and Leo Crane called the R3d Carpet, which is an AI movie festival, the first one in Portugal. It’s kind of a competition, and for the opening, we’re trying to bring some of the Cannes Festival spirit, but for AI movies.
Last year, we had a beach party, but this year, we are partnering with Moga Festival, a music festival organizer in Lisbon. It’s a really important music festival that happens every year. This year, we’re organizing their pre-event, bringing our partners, Sandbox and the gaming community, to organize a mini festival. It features three spots on the beach with 12 DJs playing from 11 am to 2 am. Parties are important here, and in Lisbon, we love the concept of beach parties.
Sounds like you’re going for strength in numbers this year with a broader tent.
John Karp: We’re promoting this under the concept of one ticket for five events, blending communities in a unique way. Trevor put it well when he talked about bringing together Ordinals and creating bridges between communities. Often, people are entrenched in their niches, but we believe it’s beneficial for everyone to be more curious. This is why we’re also partnering with the Moga festival, bringing their party-animal community into our fold.
The main theme this year revolves around these mixings, whether it’s meme coins, Ordinals, or other elements. We’re particularly excited about the dedicated art shows, with Decay Motion and others creating special performances for the event. OSF has created the tickets, and we’re thrilled to feature hundreds of artists we admire, many of whom have tailored their acts specifically for this occasion.
“We’re promoting this under the concept of one ticket for five events, blending communities in a unique way.”
JOHN KARP
For live performances, we’re focusing on physical events that combine immersive experiences with physical acts. For instance, Defaced will bring a puppet show that mixes puppets and screens, while Foodmasku will blend culinary shows with poetry broadcasts. We have artists like Laurence Fuller and Vincent D’Onofrio creating full atmospheres with dancers and actors on stage, making it a real spectacle.
Our approach questions how we can bring physicality into the digital realm to enhance interaction, not just digitally but physically, creating flesh-and-blood experiences that foster more human interaction.
In gaming, we’re introducing a dedicated gaming stage for the first time and partnering with web2 brands to bring registry vibes into the mix. In fashion, we’re addressing real-world assets and, for the first time, including luxury brands as sponsors of the event. It’s all quite exciting and a significant step forward in integrating digital and physical experiences.
What lessons have you learned from previous editions of the conference that are informing this year’s version?
John Karp: I’ve learned that you need to be in motion. If you just say it was ideal and do exactly the same, it will not work again. And that’s something I noticed when working on it; in one year, so many things happen. If you keep your usual positions, people will say, “Okay, I know what this is,” and we’re in a space where people get bored easily. So, you need to bring in people to help you. This is why you always see people using curators, for example, for events. I already had these models from last year that people are expecting in the NFT world. People are questioning NFTs, and the NFT niche community is not growing right now; it’s not attracting more people. As event organizers, we’ve been thinking about this for years. How can we bring fresh blood to the event, and not always have the same people? This was also the concept of using the same model we had with curators helping us for art, saying, “Okay, let’s find people to create events with us.”
“It’s always new programming, learning from the previous conference, and even getting ideas from other conferences. It’s becoming more dedicated and sophisticated.”
GRIDA
Grida: As a team with NFC, all our programs this year are learning from last year and different conferences. The first conference was about digital art and NFT; the exhibition was always just a screening. Last year, John and I thought there was always another way to elevate this. What could be the format? Then we brought something crazy, something non-physical art could do. So, we created the immersive room with a dedicated format; the art there was already new. Everyone was so happy then; just presenting the art itself was enough. Then, we explored the possibilities through the full masked performance. This year, showcasing digital art in an immersive room became common. What else can we bring with this setup? It means adding the human touch, performances creating something in between. This is how we created the performer’s area using the immersive room. Plus, it’s like you’ve been there last year, and we used the nighttime as a club. People were dancing, and many were chilling outside. So, we thought we could dedicate the whole building or space to the projection mappings. People can drink beer and enjoy the light show at the same time. It’s always new programming, learning from the previous conference, and even getting ideas from other conferences. It’s becoming more dedicated and sophisticated. This could be me changing and learning.
John Karp: The fact that we’re doing this in the same place as the last two years helps a lot. It’s good to have experience in the same venue regarding scaling up. We know the people flow; some areas last year were pretty empty. So we can live with that, and I think it’s interesting to try to recompose the space every time. How can we improve the people flow to be sure that, at the end of the day, with all the events happening at the same time, six stages in parallel in the same area, people know where things are happening and what’s happening at the same time?
What are your thoughts on Lisbon as a hub for web3?
John Karp: I’m not from Lisbon. Before selecting Lisbon for the event, I had only been there once in my life for a bachelor party. I didn’t know the city much, but I’ve been benchmarking and asking people. Yes, it’s true that I didn’t want to make Paris the event capital, even though I live there and it might be the most beautiful city in the world to me. I love London too. However, the vibe I wanted for the event was something where the event takes over the city, where you feel the event everywhere you go—when you are in all the hotels, all the things, a lot of people are from the NFC event. All the distances are small; you can go from anywhere to anywhere in Lisbon in 20 minutes. This reduces the stress level compared to, say, NFT NYC, where you make one choice, and it has to be a good choice because you’re committed for the next few hours.
Another expectation was the weather. We can cross our fingers because all the events so far in 2024 in the Western world were under the rain. Normally, organizing this in very late May or early June in Lisbon enables you to be outside, to have this party vibe, this holiday vibe, which is also something I wanted because the celebration is important and where you have affordable and good food.
“Something special is happening in Lisbon… you have a very strong crypto environment because of the legislation.”
JOHN KARP
Something special is happening in Lisbon. The most important standard conference, the Web Summit, has been happening over the last few years, and you have a very strong crypto environment because of the legislation. People benefit from the tax season. This has generated a lot of traction, and right now, there is a strong ecosystem on the blockchain side; it’s important on the startup side, and it has become an important stage.
So all this makes me believe that Lisbon is a future European capital where a lot of things are happening. I think it’s not by chance. You can see that Ape Fest selected Lisbon to host its first European events. We can see even more people migrating from the NFT world to live in Lisbon.
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