Category: Events

Burn2 2021: The Great Unknown in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Burn2 2021

Burn2 2021 opens its gates at 17:00 SLT on Friday, October 8th, 2021 and will run through until Sunday, October 17th, 2021. Possibly as a result of the 2020 event proving so popular amongst Burning Man veterans – that event went virtual due to the pandemic – this year’s Burn2 Octoburn is taking place over a total of 12 regions, double the usual number. Thus, there are more camps, more builds and more things to see and do.

The theme for this year’s event is The Great Unknown, once again matching the core theme of Burning Man, and the organisers of that event describe the theme in these terms:

This year’s Burning Man theme is an invitation to emerge from our collective isolation, to explore the unfamiliar contours of a changed world, and to reimagine ourselves, our community, and our culture in ways that might not have been possible before this period of plague and pause. After a long year adrift in the Multiverse, beset by angst and uncertainty, it’s time to climb up out of our escape pods and look outside to see where we’ve landed. On top of a mountain, like Noah? At the bottom of a rabbit hole, like Alice? Or are we on a vast and endless plain, ringed by ancient mountains, the sort of unfathomable territory that once caused mapmakers to throw up their hands and write “here be dragons” at the margins of the known world? 

And so it is that the eleven regions spread before and to either side of “base camp” at Burning Man Deep Hole have been given names designed to encourage camp and plot builders to go beyond the limits of everyday expression and into the cosmos of the imagination and those landscapes of the mind labelled Here Be Dragons and realms unmarked by borders or the constraints of the mundane.

Burn2 2021: Stoner Park

The Great Unknown will formally start with a “soft” opening featuring the Lamplighters, who will lead a procession through the event regions. Activities will then kick-off at 18:00 with music across the three event stages of Main, Bob, and Centre Camp. Details of all activities and entertainment can be found in the Burn 2 Event Calendar. Note that some of the individual plots may also be hosting their own events and entertainment.

As is traditional, the burning of The Man and the Temple will occur at 12:00 noon SLT on Saturday, October 16th, and Sunday October 17th, 2021 respectively.

When visiting, people can explore the regions in multiple ways: on foot, via balloon, and the familiar Department of Mutant Vehicles cars, whilst for the environmentally minded, horse are also available for riding. Also, the greeters at the main landing point have backpackers – clicking these backpacks will provide you with an inventory folder packed with info about the event, including landmarks to key points of interest.

Burn2 2021: The Temple

About Burn2

Burn2 is an extension of the Burning Man festival and community into the world of Second Life. It is an officially sanctioned Burning Man regional event, and the only virtual world event out of more than 100 real world Regional groups and the only regional event allowed to burn the man.

The Burn2 Team operates events year around, culminating in an annual major festival of community, art and fire in the fall – a virtual echo of Burning Man itself.

Related Links

Forces of light and dark, and mystery and ghosts in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Sunday, October 3rd,13:30: A Night in the Lonesome October

It is the start of the Haunted Month, and Seanchai Library (SL) are marking the arrival and passage of October with a reading of Roger Zelazy’s A Night in the Lonesome October, the last of Zelazy’s published works.

A Night In The Lonesome October

Every few decades, when the Moon is is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and the door between worlds becomes unlatched. At this time, those with certain Occult knowledge gather to engage in The Game.

Those who play take opposing sides; on one: those who seek to win The Game and throw open the door by the light of the full Moon to usher in the Great Old Ones from the other side so that they might  remake Earth in their own images and enslave or slaughter the human race in the process. Opposing the Openers are those are those who would, by winning, re-latch the door and deny the Great Old Ones their prize – at least until The Game once more resumes.

Thus, through the month of October, the Players in the game – all archetypal characters from Victorian Era gothic fiction – form alliances, make deals, oppose one another, and even kill off opposing Players, until the night of October 31st, when the ritual of the door takes place, and the fate of the world is decided.

Each Player has his or her familiar, an animal companion with near-human intelligence, to help them complete the numerous preparations they must make and so be ready for the ritual on the final night. One of these is Snuff the dog, the familiar of Jack the Ripper, and who not only attends the play of The Game with his master, but also acts as the narrator of the month’s proceedings.

Join the continuing story in Ceiluradh Glen.

Monday, October 4th, 19:00: Watchstar

Alone in the desert, Daiya is faced with dilemma that will determine her fate. If she can successfully resolve it she will join the Net of her village, but if she fails, her life will be spent with the feared Merged Ones. Confused and torn between worlds near and far, Daiya harbours a secret of her people, and must find a way to move beyond her discoveries to a safe place where she can survive.

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads from Nebula-winning author Pamela Sargent’s Watchstar series.

Tuesday, October 5th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

With music, and poetry in Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Nightbird

Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumoured to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig’s family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It’s time to break the spell.

Willow Moonfire concludes Alice Hoffman’s novel.

Wednesday, October 6th, 19:00 Dusk from the the X-Files

With Shandon Loring and Caledonia Skytower.

Thursday, October 7th,

19:00: The Past

How do you think Mrs. Vanderbridge is looking? she asked abruptly in a voice that held a breathless note of suspense. Her nervousness and the queer look in her face made me stare at her sharply. This was a house, I was beginning to feel, where everybody, from the mistress down, wanted to question me. Even the silent maid had found voice for interrogation.

What do you do if the ghost of a past love haunts you in a malicious way? Join Shandon Loring and find out.

21:00: Seanchai Late Night

Contemporary sci-fi and fantasy With Finn Zeddmore.

Friday, October 8th, 19:00: Ghostbusters

If there’s something weird
And it don’t look good
Who you gonna call?
Cale & Shand!

With Caledonia Skytower and Shandon Loring in Ceiluradh Glen.

The 2021 SL Renaissance Festival for Making Strides

Posted on by Inara Pey
via the SL Renaissance Festival 2021

The 2021 SL Renaissance Festival is currently open to visitors through until the end of Sunday, October 3rd, 2021. A signature event coordinated by the American Cancer Society, the event is in support of  Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC), an RFL of SL signature event aimed at raising awareness of the risks of breast cancer and raising funds to support research into, and treatment of, the disease.

Taking place across four regions adjoining the core American Cancer Society regions the festival presents a range of merchants, activities and entertainments linked to the medieval / renaissance periods for visitors to peruse, participate in and enjoy.

Please refer to the official SL Renaissance Festival web site for:

The jousting arena where residents can enjoy tournaments or even face Lindens and Moles at a special event on Thursday, September 30th, 2021

The event tournaments include daily rounds of jousting, archery, mounted archery, and mêlée, all of which are open to anyone who’d like to try their hand at any of them. In particular, and for those who wish to try their hand at jousting there is the added attraction of jousting against staff from Linden Lab and Moles from the Linden Department of Public Works.

Tickets to joust in this special event, which will be held between 12:00 noon and either 14:00 or 15:00 SLT on Thursday, September 30th, with tickets costing L$1,000 (proceeds to RFL of SL / Making Strides) to participate. Those from the Lab taking part comprise Constantine Linden, Derrick Linden and Patch Linden along with Abnor Mole, Alotta Mole, and Maximus Mole. Tickets can be purchased via the special kiosks at the event’s Welcome Areas.

The Tales of Heroes

As well as pavilion-based shopping within the festival’s shopping regions, visitors can also obtain special items by participating in the Stag Hunt. Just find the stag statue(s) in participating shops and in the role-play areas, and claim the goodies inside for a payment of L$25 (all payments go directly to Making Strides).

In addition, the event features:

All of which adds up to a lot to see and do! To help visitors get in the mood of the event, the landing points in the main merchant areas include a range of period costumes and accessories on sale with all funds raised again going directly to Making Strides.

URLs and SLurls

Tales from the (Seanchai) Library in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Monday, September 27th 19:00: The Weigher

A world dominated by sentiment big cats where the rule of law is enforced by the Weighers, a combination of judge, peacemaker and accountant through a brutal code of honour and combat. Without their violent intervention in things, all-out war and anarchy would ensue.

When two human explorers – fragile, weak and potentially easy prey – arrive on that world, Slasher, a Weigher of skill and talent in physical combat, finds herself defending them. In doing so, she finds herself a disgraced outcast.

Join Gyro Muggins as he resumes the story by Eric Vinicoff and Marcia Martin.

Tuesday, September 28th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

With music, and poetry in Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Nightbird

Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumoured to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig’s family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It’s time to break the spell.

Willow Moonfire read’s Alice Hoffman’s novel.

Wednesday, September 29th, 19:00 Selections from Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters

With Caledonia Skytower and Ktadhn Vesuvino in Ceiluradh Glen.

Thursday, September 30th

19:00: Abandoned

With Shandon Loring.

21:00: Ghostbusters

If there’s something weird
And it don’t look good
Who you gonna call?
Cale & Shand!

With Caledonia Skytower and Shandon Loring in Ceiluradh Glen.

A Spoonful of Sugar 2021 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
via the Spoonful of Sugar website

Currently underway in Second Life through until Saturday, October 2nd, 2021 is the annual Spoonful of Sugar festival in support of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)).

Also known as Doctors Without Borders, MSF was founded in Paris, France in 1971 as a non-profit, self-governed medical humanitarian organisation delivering emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare around the globe, based on need, irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

Since its founding, MSF has grown to a movement of 24 associations, bound together as MSF International, based in Switzerland. Thousands of health professionals, logistical and administrative staff – most of whom are hired locally – work on programmes in some 70 countries worldwide to provide medical and social care and support for a staggering 10+ million people annually. Much of this work is focused on third world countries where the likes of tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS continue to be major health threats to people of all ages.

How donations to SOS Help Every 3 seconds, someone in the world dies of malaria, many of them children. A donation to SOS of just L$100 gives one child a potentially live-saving treatment against the disease. 

In addition, MSF is often one of the first organisations to have feet on the ground following a disaster, and is also to be found carrying out vital work in work-torn countries such as Yemen, where over 91,000 people have been killed and many more wounded, injured and / or displaced in a 6-year-old war than gains little world-wide attention.

Spoonful of Sugar 2021

Since its foundation in 2016, Spoonful of Sugar has year-on-year consistently built on the amount it raises for MSF, with 2020 seeing the event contribute US $27,879. In all, and up to the opening of this year’s festival, Spoonful of Sugar had raised over US $80,000 for MSF, where over 80% of all funds raised by the organisation in turn go directly into its social and medical programmes, the remaining 19.5% being split between administration and management (4.5%) and global fund-raising initiatives by MSF (15%).

The 2021 Spoonful of Sugar opened on September 18th, 2021 with a special message from Greta Doucette, the Digital Marketing Associate for MSF Peer-to-Peer and Streaming Programmes, followed by the start of the events rolling music and entertainment schedule. Covering a total of six regions, the event combines shopping, entertainment, fashion and breedables in and event that has something for everyone.

The selected theme for Spoonful of Sugar 2021 is Mexico, with the shopping regions each featuring a little town in gay colours, complete with fund-raising kiosks along the broad streets. Some of these are of the “traditional” click-to-pay variety, others are more novel, offering the opportunity to buy special items such as the Astralia Taco Party set or grab yourself a Mexican recipes cook book.

Spoonful of Sugar 2021: fund-raising kiosks

All of the five shopping regions can be reached via a teleport station at the main landing point for the event (further stations can be found in each of the shopping regions). The landing point also provides information on the the festival and offers the opportunity to join the event’s chupacabra hunt that is packed with rewards from leading creators, and offers s free plushie on joining the event group.

Also to be found at the landing point is extensive information on a part of MSF’s work that is year-on-year becoming increasingly significant: dealing with the humanitarian crisis of forcibly displaced people. Those who are,  due to war, political or religious extremism, gang violence, terror, or other life-threatening circumstance, and unable to live safely within their preferred parts of their homelands (some 48 million people), or have been forced to flee their homeland entirely (30.3 million). At a time when those of certain politic stripes present the displaced and the homeless as some form of blight on society, the MSF information at Spoonful of Sugar is an important reminder of the reality of the plight of 82.4 million people world-wide.

I’m here to tell you that nobody wants to leave home. They love their cities, their neighbourhoods. They love speaking their own language. The people fleeing their home countries are running because their home countries aren’t safe. They are fleeing for their lives.

– Dr. Ahmed Abdalzarag, MSF neurosurgeon

Spoonful of Sugar: MSF information area

As such, Spoonful of Sugar is an event well worth the time taken to visit. Event if you don’t find anything to buy in the shopping regions, the donation kiosks will welcome your Linden dollars, and you can be absolutely sure that your money is going to a very worth cause..

SLurl and Links

Stories, music and poetry with Seanchai Library

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Monday, September 20th 19:00: The Weigher

A world dominated by sentiment big cats where the rule of law is enforced by the Weighers, a combination of judge, peacemaker and accountant through a brutal code of honour and combat. Without their violent intervention in things, all-out war and anarchy would ensue.

When two human explorers – fragile, weak and potentially easy prey – arrive on that world, Slasher, a Weigher of skill and talent in physical combat, finds herself defending them. In doing so, she finds herself a disgraced outcast.

Join Gyro Muggins as he resumes the story by Eric Vinicoff and Marcia Martin.

Tuesday, September 21st

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

With music, and poetry in Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Nightbird

Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumoured to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig’s family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It’s time to break the spell.

Willow Moonfire read’s Alice Hoffman’s novel.

Wednesday, September 22nd, 19:00 Autumn in Music and Poetry

With Caledonia Skytower and Ktadhn Vesuvino in Ceiluradh Glen.

Thursday, September 23rd

19:00: Selections from Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters

With Caledonia Skytower.

21:00: Seanchai Late Night

Contemporary science fiction and fantasy with Finn Zeddmore.