Shawn Mendes Red Rocks Show Set to Stream as Virtual-Reality Concert

On October 28 last year, Shawn Mendes performed at Red Rocks in a concert that made national headlines: At the show, Mendes spoke openly about his sexuality for the first time on stage.

Now, those who own a Meta Quest device (formerly known as Oculus) — specifically Meta Quest 3S, Quest 3, Quest 2 and Quest Pro — will be able to experience the concert themselves in virtual reality, thanks to a partnership between Meta, Dorsey Pictures, 7 Cinematics and Lightsail VR. The immersive experience aims to provide a front-row seat to the concert, in which Mendes performed his latest album, Shawn, in its entirety. Shawn Mendes: Red Rocks Live in VR will debut at 4 p.m. on Friday, January 24, in the Meta Horizon Music Valley, which users can RSVP for on the Meta website.

"Red Rocks was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. It was absolutely stunning," Mendes says. "That night was so special to me, and I'm so happy to be able to bring it to those who couldn't be there in person."
At the show, Mendes paused during his then-unreleased song "Mountain" to take a moment to speak to the audience while lightly strumming his guitar. "I thought about this for a minute today, if I was going to say something tonight at this point in the set," the 26-year-old said.

"I was really young when I started, I was fifteen years old," he continued. "I went right into working a lot and traveling, and it was the most beautiful thing. But the truth is that I didn't get to kind of do a lot of fifteen-year-old things and discover parts of myself that you do at fifteen. And man, you know, since I was really young...there's been this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long. And I think it's kind of silly, because sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it's so hard to just put into boxes. And it always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me, something that I was figuring out in myself, something I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover."

Mendes added that writing "The Mountain" felt "really important" to him, "because it felt like a moment where I could address it in a way that felt close to my heart. And yeah, I guess I'm just speaking freely now because I just want to be able to be closer to everyone and be in my truth.

"The real truth about my life and my sexuality," he added, "is that, man, I'm just figuring it out like everyone. And I don't really know sometimes, and I know other times. And it feels really scary, because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that, and I'm trying to be really brave and allow myself to be a human and feel things, and yeah...that's all I really want to say about that for now."

The crowd cheered him on as he continued the song, which also acknowledges the topic with such lyrics as, "You can say I’m too young / You can say I’m too old / You can say I like girls or boys / Whatever fits your mold.”

The VR concert will be a little under an hour and a half, and those who participate will get to hear such hits as "Stitches," "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back," "In My Blood" and more.

More into in-person concerts? Take a look at our Denver concert calendar.