The 2022 Home and Garden Expo (HGE) in support of Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society, is now open, and runs through until Sunday, March 20th. Taking place across nine regions (Hope 1 through 9), the event offers some of the finest in home, garden, and furnishing designs available across the grid.
With multiple exhibitors taking part, the event offers something for anyone who is looking for a new home, ideas for furnishing and décor, wishing to improve their building (or other) skills, or who just wishes to keep abreast of the latest building / home trends in Second Life.
As always, the Expo there will be a range of events and activities, including entertainment, focused on the main stage at Hope 1, talks and presentation focus on the auditorium at Hope 3, artists, auctions, breedables. and more.
Once more returning the the event is the Home and Garden Decorating Competition, which this year offers fourteen different builds, including two of seven different styles, including beach houses, tiny homes and one with a distinctively Mexican style. These will be made available to fourteen finalists, who will have a 350 land impact allowance with which to decorate a both a house and its garden.
These finalists will be chosen by a raffle draw and will be assigned one of the fourteen houses, based on their preferences. Finalists can be individuals or teams, and must decorate their house in keeping within its style, and must include at least three purchased from RFL vendors at the Expo. With winning design will be decided on the basis of a popular vote by those attending the Expo.
The time line the competition is thus: entries for participation to be submitted by the end of Friday, March 5th, with selected finalists able to decorate their houses been noon SLT on Saturday, March 6th and the end of Friday, March 12th. Voting will then take place between Saturday, March 13th and Wednesday, March 17th with votes cast via donations make through the kiosks placed outside of each house. The winner(s) will be announced on Thursday, March 18th.
A full list of participating stores / merchants, together with a breakdown of shopping by region can be found on the Home and Garden Expo website.
Entertainment will be provided through out event, both at the main stage featuring live performances and DJs, and the Auditorium will be home to a range of talks and presentations. In addition, there will be special performances taking place on the Expo’s sky events platform, together with displays at the event’s aerial viewing platform – so be sure to keep an eye on the full event and entertainment schedule.
One thing that will not be present at this year’s event will be any reveal of an upcoming Linden Homes theme. While such reveals have formed a part of events like the RFL Home and Garden Expo and the Christmas Expo, the overall schedule for Linden Homes development is not in any way tied to these (or other non-Lab organised events). The most recent theme to be announced, the Newbrooke, was previewed in December 2021 and apparently garnered multiple negative reviews, prompting its withdrawal for an update. This may have given rise to a false expectation of an updated preview / new reveal at this year’s Home and Garden, but as Patch Linden has noted, theme will be revealed & made available when the Lab is ready.
For the most up-to-date info on the event, do be sure to keep an eye on the official website and be sure drop in the the Home and Garden Expo, tour the houses, look at the furnishing and enjoy the entertainment. And even if you’re not in the mood to buy anything, please consider to drop a donation or two into the RFL kiosks and help support ACS and RFL of SL in their world-wide endeavours.
Links and SLurls
- Home and Garden Expo website
- List of Participating Stores / Merchants
- Entertainment Guide
- SLurls:
- Main Stage
- Auditorium
- Sky events platform
- Aerial viewing platform
- Please also refer to the Home and Garden website for region SLurls
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 