Major Fest: A new Opening Day experience

March 31st, 2021

Being a baseball fan doesn’t only have to be about following what happens between the white lines. There’s also a vast world to explore around the sport -- the gaming, the fashion, the music, the ballpark food, the collecting and more. You can immerse yourself in this world on Opening Day, as MLB brings you Major Fest, a new way to consume baseball.

Hosted by eSports broadcaster Jeff Eisenband, Major Fest will stream on MLB’s Twitch channel and MLB.com starting at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Over the course of the six-hour event, a wide range of guests will check in, including comedians/television personalities Desus & Mero; Twitch streamer Actionjaxon; food influencer Jack Mancuso; collegiate baseball trailblazer/popular TikTok creator Marika Lyszczyk; former softball star/current MLB host Lauren Chamberlain; MLB Network’s Stephen Nelson, Robert Flores and Cliff Floyd; MLB.com’s Sarah Langs; ESPN’s Joon Lee; and rapper Big K.R.I.T., whose song “Pick Up the Pace” was featured in the trailer for MLB The Show 21.

The event is part of a wider effort by Major League Baseball to engage more directly with a younger audience, with a focus on content geared toward Gen Z, which makes up a sizable portion of the Twitch user base.

Major Fest will include Among Us gameplay, Topps sports card box breaks, walk-up song debates and a music tracker, and a chat with the MLB The Show 21 developers. The latest installment of the MLB The Show video-game franchise is scheduled to be released on April 20.

Throughout the day, there will also be coverage of MLB’s Opening Day action, featuring alternate camera angles and behind-the-scenes looks to provide a unique view of the game.