Black Stump
VRChat·weekends·free
A clearing by the billabong. Music through the paperbarks.
A quintessentially Australian music venue in VRChat, somewhere out past the last town, beyond the black stump. Red earth, still water, a waterfall coming off the escarpment, stars all the way down to the ridge line, frogs in the reeds — and on the weekend, a sound system and lights to carry you through to morning. Finding your way in is part of the night.
Find us
Don’t miss the first night.
There is no door and no ticket, so the only way to hear when the Stump opens is to be somewhere we can reach you. Pick one. Pick all three.
What’s on
Past nights →DJs·live acts·VJs
Join the line-up
We’re building a roster, not selling slots. All styles are welcome; right now we’re especially keen on progressive trance, melodic psytrance, disco, funk and ambient, and on VJs who can make a bush clearing move without drowning it.
Tell us what you do and how you’d stream it. We listen to everything, and we’ll be in touch when a night fits your sound.
First time
Getting in
Join the group
Black Stump is a VRChat world. Free, no ticket, PC or headset — headset is better. Join the group and you are on the list for the first nights; instances open to members before anyone else. The world link goes up here with the first night.
Find the way through
You arrive in a laneway at night, under a sign that cannot decide whether it is on. The clearing is close. Where the way in is, you work out for yourself — everyone does, sooner than they expect.
Follow the music
Once you are through, you come out above the water. Head down towards the sound and you are on the floor.
The place
A clearing, a fire, the water
Where this comes from
A doof, in another world
The bush doof is the quintessential Australian outdoor party: a sound system driven out past the last town, a clearing, a fire, and people who came a long way to dance under a sky with no light pollution in it. Black Stump is that idea, in a place that does not exist.
It is run by a DJ who has been playing since the late nineties and who, from 2007 to 2019, was one of the core organisers of Rainbow Serpent Festival, the four-day gathering in the paddocks outside Lexton that grew from a bush doof in 1998 into one of the world’s longest-running and best-loved psychedelic music festivals — which grew from a thousand people to a global behemoth of twenty thousand people, multiple stages, art installations, sculptures, and a crew who cared about the whole of it, not just the headliners.
The Stump is a different shape to a festival, on purpose. One floor, one sound system, the billabong for a backdrop, and a crowd you can actually meet. Live DJs play real sets on real gear, streamed into the world and standing at the booth as themselves.
Support the Stump
No door, no ticket. Just the hat.
Nights at the Stump are free and always will be. What it costs is the DJs, the stream, and the hours that go into building a place that feels like somewhere. If you want to put something in the hat, there are three ways, on Patreon.
Punter
AUD 5 / month
Keeps the lights on. Punter colours in the Discord, the round-the-fire channel, and first word on every night.
Crew
AUD 15 / month
The people who hold the place together. Everything a Punter gets, plus your name on the board at the bottom of the ramp and a vote on what happens next.
Absolute Legend
AUD 100 / monthLimited to 5
Sponsor a night. Your name on it — on the board, the event page and the announcement. Five of these, no more.
Join on Patreon → Join from a web browser rather than the iPhone app — Apple takes 30% in the app, and that comes off the Stump, not off you.
Good to know
Headphones
The sound system is the point. Wear headphones if you can; laptop speakers will not get you there.
Flashing lights
The stage uses strobes and lasers. There are No-flashing and Lasers-off switches just inside the way in and again above the floor. They only change what you see, and they remember your choice next time.
Running slow?
Flip Lite mode on the same switches. And in VRChat’s own settings, Safety → Performance Options lets you hide very heavy avatars — most people never find it.
Times
Nights are listed in Sydney time (AEST/AEDT) with UTC alongside. Most of the crowd is somewhere else; work out yours before the night, not during it.