Two editions, one cultural experiment

The question

Crypto art was moving quickly, but the technology around it was still difficult for many artists to understand and easy for the wider public to dismiss. The interesting question was not how to explain blockchain in another presentation. It was how to create a place where people could experience what the medium made possible.

Rare Effect became that place across two editions: first as a hybrid experiment between Lisbon and a virtual world, then as a larger physical festival with an international community around it.

Volume one: Lisbon and Cryptovoxels

The first Rare Effect took place in February 2021, simultaneously in Lisbon and inside Cryptovoxels. We co-organised what became the first NFT festival in Europe, using the virtual environment as part of the exhibition rather than treating it as a livestream substitute.

I helped organise the programme and took part as a speaker and moderator. The edition created more than $18,000 in NFT sales, but its more important result was cultural: artists and audiences could meet inside the medium while it was still being defined.

Volume two: a physical festival at scale

From 19 to 26 May 2022, Rare Effect returned in Lisbon as a much larger physical experience. We brought together 95 artists from around the world and built a programme around digital art, performance, technology, collectors, and community.

As co-organiser, I was responsible for partnerships and collector relations. The edition drew more than 30,000 visits across the programme and generated more than $45,000 in NFT sales. More importantly, it gave a dispersed creative community a room in which relationships, knowledge, and confidence could compound.

What the two editions taught me

My role sat naturally between curation and venture building. I could understand the technology, shape the experience, bring very different people into the same project, and create a frame that made their individual work feel part of something larger.

Rare Effect is the creative half of how I work. I do not separate aesthetic judgment from business or technology. Taste helps people recognise why an idea matters. Structure gives them a way to participate in it. The strongest projects need both.