Category: Fantasy Faire

Deep within the 2015 Fairelands lies an enchanted glade, the home to a series of literary activities new to Fantasy Faire this year, and collectively called the Fantasy Faire Literary Festival (LitFest for short).

Many events have been planned, and there is an open invitation to all who enjoy spinning a yarn, telling a tale, reading a story, reciting poetry and more, to come along and enjoy all that LitFest has to offer, from readings, to discussions and presentations through to open microphone sessions. And to mark the birthday of Sir Terry Pratchett, who so sadly passed away earlier this month, Tuesday, April 28th at the LitFest has been declared Terry Pratchett Day!

The full time-table of activities (as they stood at the time of writing) can be found on the Fantasy Faire blog, with all the necessary background information. However, in summary (all times SLT):

Thursday, April 23rd, 2015

• 17:30 – 19:00: Open Microphone session moderated by Saffia Widdershins. Bring your own poetry, short story or an extract from a longer piece of work and have 15 minutes before the microphone to introduce it and read it

Friday, April 24th, 2015

• 08:00 – 10:00: Caledonia Skytower from Seanchai Library reads selections from Lord of the Rings
• 11:00 – 12:30: Open Microphone session moderated by Judi Newall. Bring your own poetry, short story or an extract from a longer piece of work and have 15 minutes before the microphone to introduce it and read it
• 14:00 – 16:00: Aurora – Prelude to the Confluence: Beq Janus reads from her own story, written for Fantasy Faire

Saturday, April 25th, 2015

• 02:00 – 04:00: Cata Charisma from Seanchai Library reads some of his own works and favourites from the fantasy genre
• 08:00 – 10:00: Caledonia Skytower from Seanchai Library reads “Gorak the Gobbler”, her newest short story, which is about to be published
• 14:00 – 16:00: Speculative Fiction Saturday: Simeon Beresford leads a regular long running fantasy and science fiction discussion group in this special location for Fantasy Faire

In all the realms of the Fairelands, none were more renowned than the Ten Champions of the Queen.

Each of them had a tale to tell and a unique set of skills and abilities to share, and to teach – for it is to the Champions that the Bard Queen entrusted the care and guidance of her only daughter, the Princess Flora.

For the Princess they were her teachers, her companions … and her friends.

But the Unweaver never sleeps. Through his wicked designs, the Princess is now lost beyond the Sea of Mists, a captive of the Winter King.

Thus opens the story of this year’s Fantasy Faire hunt: The Lost Land.

Among the many events that mark Fantasy Faire, the hunt is one of the most loved, and most eagerly awaited, immersing all those who participate fully in the wonder and joy of the Fairelands and Fantasy Faire. Not only will this year’s hunt continue the tradition, it promises to be something rather special.

Written by Saffia Widdershins,  featuring a specially designed region by Rynn Verwood, scripting by Encaitaron Korobose and produced and directed by Aisling Sinclair,  The Lost Land commences on April 23rd, and runs for the duration of the Faire – and you will not want to miss it.

Once the Fairelands have opened, you will have the opportunity to purchase the Hunt HUD and become a Hunter, helping the queen recover her lost child. Along the way, you will encounter mystery and magic, and discover things are not always as they seem. And, of course, there will be rewards for those who do not falter, generously donated by the merchants participating in the Faire.

The Princess has faded from memory – except for that of the Queen who keeps and cherishes one last lock of golden hair, bright and unfading.

But the Champions have become stricken by a strange indifference; any thought of their noble purpose has fled their minds. They await you, brave Hunter, to reinvigorate them and restore their will to serve.

And here, each day of the Faire, the Champions will reveal themselves to you, one by one.

Will you be the one to recover the princess, and in doing so, save the Fairelands – and save us all? The adventure begins on April 23rd.

Further Information and Related Links

• Fantasy Faire blog
• Fantasy Faire on Facebook
• Fantasy Faire on Twitter
• Fantasy Faire on Plurk
• Fantasy Faire on Pinterest
• Fantasy Faire on Flickr

I remember walking the streets between wall and mountain.
I remember climbing stone-hewn steps and passing under arched passages.
I remember tall houses clinging to sheers faces of rock.
And I remember standing atop Hope’s Horizon as the sun came up.

I remember looking over a sea of red in a bowl of stone.
I remember the wind-blown ripples that dry-stirred its surface.
I remember walking through a field of roses.
And I remember  Crimson’s Field’s lone tower.

I remember the sky-strung crystals and gilt-edged paths of glass.
I remember the needles of rock rising from shimmering waters.
I remember the colours so vivid atop the slender spires.
And I remember Haven Hollow’s wonder.

I remember the gentle waters, the narrow bridges and shuttered doors.
I remember Buddha sat by bamboo fingers, as incense burns close by.
I remember heron waiting and lions guarding.
And I remember Lotus Valley’s dragon, and his vigilant gaze.

But most of all, I remember all those we’ve loved and lost.
And each year so I also look forward,
Awaiting the Fairelands and their return.
To give us new hope, new wonders, new memories
That help us remember once more.

I remember is a new challenge presented to bloggers by the Fantasy Faire team, inviting us to share out memories of past Faires, the realms they’ve held, the forms we took whilst exploring them, the adventures they gave us, and the moments of wonder we felt.

So why not share your memories, or perhaps share in one of the three other challenges for bloggers? and don’ forget, if you intend to apply to be an official blogger and haven’t already done so, your application must be submitted by April 18th, 2015.

There is now a little over two weeks to go before the largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life opens its gates once more, for ten days of commerce, special events, live music concerts and more, all to help raise funds for Relay for Life of Second Life.

Thursday, April 23rd 2015 and will run through until Sunday, May 3rd, 2015 inclusive, the Faire will welcome everyone with a love of fantasy the creators the performers, the designers, the enthusiasts and curious. Across ten themed regions, there will be much to explore, to see and do – but it is still some two weeks away before we can all do so.

So how can the time be made to pass a little easier as the anticipation mounts? The Faire’s organisers have offered a 5-point plan to Faire Happiness:

1. Follow the Fantasy Faire blog

As much as bloggers across the community try to keep pace with news and updates, the best place to get the latest information really is from the Faire’s own blog pages. So if you’ve not bookmarked it or are not following it for updates – now is a good time to start: there’s going to be lots of news and information flowing through it in the coming weeks.

2. Follow Fantasy Faire on Social Media

Fantasy Faire has its own Facebook page –  and the organisers would love to get at least 500 likes on the page before the Faire opens, and you can keep up with news by checking on it.

Don’t forget as well that Fantasy Faire is also active on Twitter, Plurk, Pinterest and Flickr!

3. Take the Why I Relay Challenges

We all have our reasons for Relaying, and the Faire already has a challenge open to bloggers  – whether they apply to be an official blogger or not – to write about why they Relay.

However, if you feel the words escaping, you, but still wish to express why you Relay in a picture, Fantasy Faire volunteer blogger Catalina Staheli is offering a challenge of her own. She’s offering anyone who contacts her in-world to arrange an appointment with them and then take their photo as they hold a card expressing their personal reason on why they Relay.  Catalina says of the idea:

This past month, Fashion 4 Life jumped in and all of the Miss SL candidates offered their most couture looks incorporated into the reasons why they relay. I’m going to issue a challenge! I wanna see Fantasy Faire blow them out of the water with amazing looks, outfits, and designs as you show why you relay for life. Let’s see what you can do to showcase just how amazing, imaginative, vivid, and colourful Second Life can be!

Those portraits taken so far can be seen on Catalina’s Flickr stream, and she’s offering the service free of charge, and all participants will receive full perm copies of the their own portraits to use howsoever they wish.

What’s more at least some of the pictures might very well make an appearance in the Fairelands themselves. A possible exhibition of portraits is being planned – but if you’d like your own image to be included, be sure to drop Catalina a line sooner rather than later; April 20th has been mentioned as the deadline for the pictures that want to make it into an exhibition.

4. Sign-up To Help with the Faire’s Literary Festival

Deep within the 2015 Fairelands will lie an enchanted glade, the home to a series of literary activities. Stage readings, workshops, story-telling sessions, discussions groups and more, all focused on the theme of fantasy will be found here. But, in order for it to be found, it needs bards and poets, speakers of words, tellers of tales and weavers of verbal magic.

There is an open invitation to all who enjoy spinning a yarn, telling a tale, reading a story, reciting poetry and more, to join in this literary event, a new feature for Fantasy Faire. If you would be interested in doing so, please complete this simple form, and the Storytellers of the Faire will be in contact with you.

5. Nominate Your Choice for the King, Queen and Chancellor  of the Faire!

When it comes to Fantasy, we all have our favorite characters. Some may be good – Gandalf or Harry Potter, Belle or Menolly.  Or maybe we love the dark side – Maleficent or Steerpike. Or maybe we enjoy the conflicted – Jaime Lannister or Mrs Coulter. Now is your chance to nominate those you most enjoy, good, bad, conflicted or others, to be the Faire’s King and Queen.

And there’s an election for Chancellor as well, for characters from fantasy who have no elements of human appearance. So nominate your choice today, be it Archimedes the Owl, or Ratty, or Pegasus or perhaps even Smaug himself. The choice is yours!

The winning human characters will be crowned King and Queen of the Faire during the fabulous Fantasy Faire Ball, which will take place on Friday, May 1st, between 17:00 – 19:00 SLT, and will also see the announcement of the Faire’s Chancellor!

Find out more and complete the nomination form on the Fantasy Faire blog.

Further Information and Related Links

• Fantasy Faire blog
• Fantasy Faire on Facebook
• Fantasy Faire on Twitter
• Fantasy Faire on Plurk
• Fantasy Faire on Pinterest
• Fantasy Faire on Flickr

The largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life, Fantasy Faire, opens its portals on Thursday, April 23rd 2015 and will run through until Sunday, May 3rd, 2015 inclusive. It will bring together everyone with a love of fantasy  – enthusiasts, creators, performers and designers  – for ten days of commerce, special events, live music concerts and more, all to help raise funds for Relay for Life of Second Life.

On Monday, March 23rd, the Faire organisers announced that applications for blogging about the Faire are now being taken, with the announcement reading in part:

Faire blogging should stem from the same source the Fairelands do: inspiration and imagination. There are no obligatory assignments. Instead there are challenges. We do not want to force anyone to do anything, we want to inspire, dare, encourage: challenge.

The challenges are three in number, although bloggers are not obliged to follow any of them, nor are they restricted to only official bloggers – anyone wishing to can participate in them. They are:

• Faire Folk – “create a character from the Fairelands. Pick one of the Faire sims as their home, make a look mostly from Faire items, make the character come alive. Take at least one picture of that character in the chosen home sim and blog away! The more roleplay-style bloggers are invited to write about the character as well, but even those to whom pictures speak more than words can let those pictures speak loud and clear! Sim exploration stories encouraged!”
• My New Shiny – “find a shop in the Fairelands you have never heard of before and blog something of theirs that you love. This is all about finding and showcasing the hidden talents, the newcomers, the surprises you can find when you explore the Fairelands thoroughly instead of just going through your already familiar favourites. If you know every single shop in the Faire, pick one that you think should be in the spotlight more.”
• Why I Relay – “this challenge is for those who do have a personal reason to support Relay for Life events and who would like to share it. Obviously if you don’t have any personal tie to the charity or if you’d like to keep your reasons private, there is no need to do this. But those who would like to speak out for the charity, for RFL and for their reasons, they are invited to do so.”

Make sure you read the blogger information in full, and complete your application form for consideration.

Words of Power

This year, the event organisers are putting out a special call to bards, tellers of tales, weavers of words, purveyors or poetry and prose and storytelling large and small, to volunteer their time and talent to help create special narrative and story events.

Deep within the 2015 Fairelands will lie an enchanted glade, the home to a series of literary activities. Stage readings, workshops, story-telling sessions, discussions groups and more, all focused on the theme of fantasy will be found here. But, in order for it to be found, it needs those aforementioned bards and poets, speaker of words and weavers of verbal magic.

There is an open invitation to all who enjoy spinning a yarn, telling a tale, reading a story, reciting poetry and more, to join in this literary event, a new feature for Fantasy Faire. If you would be interested in doing so, please complete this simple form, and the Storytellers of the Faire will be in contact with you.

Further Information and Related Links

• Fantasy Faire blog
• Fantasy Faire on Facebook
• Fantasy Faire on Twitter
• Fantasy Faire on Plurk
• Fantasy Faire on Pinterest
• Fantasy Faire on Flickr

 

Fantasy Faire 2015, in support of Relay for Life of Second Life, will open the portals on its seventh successive year on Thursday, April 23rd, 2015, and they will remain open through until Sunday, May 3rd, 2015 inclusive.

The largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life, the Faire brings together fantasy enthusiasts, creators, performers and designers for ten days of commerce, special events, live music concerts across the Fairelands, all for a common cause and to celebrate the worlds of fantasy and adventure.

Regions and Designers

The ten themed regions were recently been announced, together with their designers, sponsors and key stores:

Aurora: designed by by Beq Janus, sponsored by NeoVictoria. “On a world plunged into ice age, men of science seek answers in the ethereal shimmering of the planets energy field. Meanwhile the Mystics tell tales of the unweaver at whose feet they lay the blame for their ice-age, their hopes for salvation lie in legends of heroes, ancient tales of lands across the dimensions, their faith hangs on finding the lost knowledge that can bring forth the confluence. The two factions, poles apart in their beliefs are about come together as myth and machine meet beneath the Northern Lights.”

Ichi-go Ichi-e: designed by Sharni Azalee and Marcus Inkpen, sponsored by The Looking Glass. “Let your imagination fly you to a land where anything is possible. Walk on water among pink clouds in this surreal landscape where large sakura flowers and other exotic flora tower over you in a beautiful dream forest of pinks and grays and fawn.”

Odyssey: designed by Alia Baroque, sponsored by Fallen Gods Inc. “As you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that your journey be a long one, filled with adventure, filled with discovery” – Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth.

Poppetsborough: designed by Luna Barak, Alrunia Ahn and Kyra Reiter, sponsored by Dandelion Daydreams Factory. “Enter a storybook world with the emphasis on the book. Have your favorite stories pop to life as you walk into the book and become the characters of your favourite fairytales.”

Spires of Andolys: designed by Jaimy Hancroft  and Eowyn Swords, sponsored by Dwarfins. “Crooked little fantasy styled houses inspired by the fairytales of your childhood. Centered around a magnificent castle that would be the envy of Sleeping Beauty. Careful though, the castle guards a secret dungeon hidden deep within its bowels where the darkest villains are forever forgotten.”

Sylvan of Spells: designed by Sweetgwendoline Bailey and Eldowyn Inshan, sponsored by Merchants of Dreams 2015. “Enchanted grove where our stories are collected and nurtured by mystic librarians. Books, scrolls and parchment litter the ground, the debris of the Forest of Enlightenment.”

Tangleshimmer Grove: designed by Searlait Nitschke, sponsored by Roawenwood.”Deep in the heart of the wood is the secret place of Fairies. Golden light bathes the lush green as flowers dance and the early morning dew lays a glistening shimmer over the world.”

Valacia: designed by Mayah Parx, sponsored by Epic Toys. “A floating market town, a bustling trade hub where denizens of the Fairelands come to trade for even the most obscure of items. Dark & weather-beaten, all matter of constructions criss-cross the waters to keep this hodgepodge of shacks,stalls and barges afloat. Magical mysteries abound in this haven for traders and thieves alike.”

Wildehaven Marsh: designed by Rynn Verwood, sponsored by Solarium. “Settled at the edge of a lake, the village was created centuries ago, as a safe haven for those who practised magic. An air of abandonment floats over the town now, however don’t be fooled, its magic is still much alive as one can see in the soft glows shining through the ivy covered windows.”

YoZakura: designed by Nya Alchemi, sponsored by Fuubutsu Dou. “In the late hours of the night, visit the Japanese Hanami Festival and dream… Traveller behold As Midnight courts the Moon and Cherry blossoms dance.”

Event sponsors for 2015 so far include:  -AZUL-, Boudoir, Curious Kitties, Dark Unicorns of Lovelace, Death Row Designs, Junbug, L’Uomo, The Muses, ORIONITE, OtherSkin, Plastik, Safe Waters Foundation, Sanctuary RP Community, Spyralle, Stitched., The Forge, and The White Armory.

As noted in my last update for Fantasy Faire 2015, store registrations are currently open for those designers wishing to participate in the event – but spaces on the regions are filling-up fast!

DJ Registrations

Music has always been a special part of Fantasy Faire, and 2015 is no exception. Fantasy Faire Radio is now taking applications from DJs who are willing to be a part of the on-air team through the event.

If you are a DJ who can commit time to one of more 2-hour sets on air at the Faire, please fill-out the application form ASAP, as slots are limited!

Further Information and Related Links

• Fantasy Faire blog
• Fantasy Faire on Facebook
• Fantasy Faire on Twitter
• Fantasy Faire on Plurk
• Fantasy Faire on Pinterest
• Fantasy Faire on Flickr