Fantasy Faire: a Drax Files special

This weekend marks the start of Fantasy Faire 2013 in aid of Relay for Life Second Life. Ahead of the opening, Draxtor Despres brings us a special segment of The Drax Files, focusing on the event, as seen through the eyes of one of the principal movers and shakers for the event – Zander Greene. It’s a wonderful and moving insight to the event and one which – once again – speaks to the heart of what Second Life can, and does represent.

Zander’s involvement in Fantasy Faire and RFL came as a direct result of the loss of his father, and anyone who has lost a loved one through cancer cannot fail to identify with his opening comments. These remarks, coupled with his views on the incredible potential and capabilities inherent in Second Life which, can for me, lift this segment of The Drax Files to new heights.

“Relay for Life of Second Life is probably the most cost-effective fundraising effort on the planet,” Zander observes, in discussing the effectiveness of SL as a practical medium. “You can’t imagine the scale of something like Fantasy Faire being done in the physical world. The cost would essentially be the cost of nine big-budget feature films plus a nine-day convention. There is no overhead [in Second life] except the time we donate, and we’re bringing thousands of people together who are separated by so much distance, we’d likely never have even know of one another’s existence … and a virtual world just erases all those barriers and gives us the means to do something that is really good.”

He goes on to make a number of valuable and thought-provoking comments which, given the recent moves to relaunch LL’s “become your avatar” campaign are particularly relevant and worth future discussion. However, as this is a preview video, and I’ve banged-on quite enough about promoting Second Life over the past few years, I’m not going to diving into a long diatribe here.

Instead, I’m going to leave you to enjoy another excellent segment of The Drax Files, together with some very pertinent words from Drax himself, “Thousands will come together this week in order to celebrate life, humanity and free expression while at the same time battling the dark forces of a deadly disease in a way that has tangible, measurable REAL WORLD impact!”

Related Links

• Fantasy Faire website
• Fantasy Faire on Plurk
• Fantasy Faire on Flickr
• Fantasy Faire on Pinterest
• RFL USA (American Cancer Society)
• RFL UK (Cancer Research)
• RFL of SL website
• Fantasy Faire 2013 coverage in this blog
• RFL coverage in this blog
• The Drax Files episode 4 on YouTube
• The Drax Files World Makers in this blog