When a group of porn enthusiasts decided to launch the first VR Sex Festival in Japan this week, they probably expected a fair amount of interest. What they probably weren’t prepared for, however, was a full-on shutdown before the event had even opened. Unfortunately for the organisers of Adult VR Fest 01 in Tokyo, this is exactly what happened; with the event proving so popular that visiting crowds were forced to evacuate, and the festival closed down almost as soon as it began.

According to reports, only 20 lucky people at the front of the crowd were allowed into the festival. They apparently had the chance to trial the featured gadgets, which included cardboard breasts simulators, virtual reality headsets, and robot arms designed to give pleasure at the push of a button.

“The event didn't start until 2pm, so I went there in high spirits an hour before then, but the city was already overflowing with people,” one unsuccessful visitor told VR Talk. “There were so many that it was almost impossible to keep the situation under control. While waiting for my friends, I couldn't help but think that if they couldn't control the mass of people, a riot or something similar could happen.”

These parallel VR worlds – created to satisfy all your needs without having to bother real people – have increasingly become popular among the new age pornographic community over the last couple of years. One scientific paper, written by futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson, even recently predicted that virtual porn and ‘sex robots’ would wipe out the popularity of actual human-on-human sex by the year 2050.

The disappointment felt by fans who had been queuing outside Tokyo’s Adult VR Fest 01 hours before it started was compensated by a promise of another (bigger) event sometime soon – though no date has yet been set.