Second Life marks its 19th anniversary in 2022 with a week-long celebration of music, entertainment, art and more across 44 regions, nine of which are given over to exhibits from Second Life residents, and which include the companion Shop and Hop event.
With core celebrations running through until Sunday, June 26th, the birthday regions and the Shop and Hop event will remain open through until July 5th, 2022, and the theme for this year’s event is – Steampunk!
The gates have now opened, but as there was no opportunity for any previews by bloggers, etc., in advance, we’re all scrabbling around trying to put things together. Hopefully, however, this will serve as a shorthand guide, and my apologies for any omissions.
Key Events
In terms of major events, what does SL19B hold? Well, the best way the stay abreast of all that’s going on is via the official calendar of events, which I’ve embedded below.
- Use the Week / Month options, top right to change the calendar view.
- Click on any given line item on any given day of festivities to view more information, including teleport SLurls.
Grand Opening
Patch Linden will be formally opening SL18B at 12:00 SLT at the Arboretum, which will also be streamed as a You Tube Lab Gab special, in which Strawberry Linden will afterwards host a tour of the SL19B regions.
Meet the Lindens
As per usual, SL19B will feature a series of Meet the Lindens sessions, which can be attended in-world and live streamed via the Second Life You Tube channel. The sessions will all take place at the Arboretum, and will feature the following guests:
| Day (Times SLT) | Featured Guest(s) |
| Monday 20th June, 14:00 |
Patch Linden, Vice President of Product Operations. |
| Tuesday 21st June, 14:00 | Linden Lab Executive Chair Brad Oberwager and Technical Advisor Philip Rosedale |
| Wednesday 22nd, June, 14:00 | The Marketing Team. |
| Thursday 23rd June, 14:00 | Grumpity Linden, Vice President of Second Life Product and Mojo Linden, Vice President of Engineering. |
| Friday 24th June, 14:00 | Meet the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works. |
Premium Plus Announcement
If all is still going according to plan, at least one of the Meet the Lindens sessions should see the official announcement of the Premium Plus subscription package: what it is, what it will contain, what it will cost and when it will be launching.
SL19B Music Fest
- The Music Fest will kick-off at 13:00 SLT on Thursday, June 16th, and conclude at 22:00 SLT on Saturday, June 18th.
- It will take place at three venues across the SLB regions, with one venue hosting the event on each day.
| Time (SLT) | June 16th – Arboretum | June 17th – The Steamworks | June 18th – Vernian Rotunda |
| 09;00 | Gates Open | — | — |
| 10;00 | — | — | Cylindrian Rutabaga |
| 11:00 | Opening Ceremony | Oblee | Tia Rungray |
| Noon | — | AnLaik | Skye Galaxy |
| 13:00 | Marqs DeSade | The Interplanetary Liberation Front | Tempio Breil |
| 14:00 | Joaquin Gustav | Randy De Lucia | SEMINA |
| 15:00 | Joka | Shuggah! | Mimi Carpenter |
| 16:00 | Holly Giles | Sam King | Frogg Marlowe & Jaycatt Nico (Effinjay) |
| 17;00 | Angelikus Deo | J Lively | spiritLed |
| 18:00 | Ruvie Gatchie | Agatha Nowles | Jimmyt49 Dukes |
| 19:00 | Seth Regan | Grace Loudon | Mae Loved |
| 21:00 | — | — | John Rocky |
| 21:00 | — | — | Gabryel Nyoki |
Shop and Hop
The SL19B Shop and Hop event is the largest S&H event thus far held.
- 20 regions of shopping.
- 400 creators offering 20% or more off of items.
- Open through until July 5th, 2022.
- Find direct SLurls to all participating creators here OR use the SLurls at the end of this article to jump to any of the Shop and Hop regions.
Other Points of Interest
The Tapestry of Time and Gift Area.
First presented in 2018, the region-wide Tapestry of Time presents visitor with a walk-through of Second Life’s history from 2003 through to the present day using images, text and videos. True, not everything has been recorded, but there’s enough within the region to be of interest to the historically minded.
within the Tapestry of Time can be found the SL19B Gift Area, offering gifts from the Birthday exhibitors and from merchants participating in the Shop & Hop event.
The Community Gallery
For 19 years, Second Life has offered us a virtual space to create, define and explore, bringing people from around the world together to create, share, discover new interests and make new friends, participate in games and adventures, to learn and discuss, and simply have fun.
For SL19B, the Community Gallery has been created to offer a place where visitors can share their memories of their times and adventures, memories that turned a virtual world into a community of Residents.
Pod Tours
Once again, Yavanna Llanfair‘s excellent pod tours will be circulating through the SLB regions. Hop on any that are free as they pass, or grab one from the pod tours station.
Exhibitor Regions
As is common for SLB events, the mix of content is varied, and the representation of interests broad. Role-play groups, arts, communities, are represented across the nine regions open to exhibitors; some are static, others are interactive in nature.
- Direct links to the exhibitor regions can be found in the SLurls lists at the end of this piece.
- Information / SLurls for individual exhibitors can be found in the SL19B Community Experiences pages of the Destination Guide.
Note that teleport boards are available throughout the region for jumping between them.
Advice on a Better Experience
The SL19B regions – celebratory and Shop & Hop can get exceptionally busy. To help ease the pain for you:
- If you have a high draw distance, reduce it to as low as is comfortable for your enjoyment.
- Turn off shadows in your viewer if you usually have them enabled.
- Go to Preferences → Graphics and reduce the slider Max # Non-Imposter Avatars to a minimum and dial-down your Complexity slider.
- Remove texture-heavy HUDs to free-up more texture memory.
- To assist the simulator, remove unnecessary scripted attachments.
- Dress lightly, avoid accessories of high complexity.
SLurls and Destination Guide Links
Core Event Region SLurls
All SLB regions are rated General.
- The Arboretum – home to the Opening Ceremony, the Meet the Lindens sessions, the June 16th Music Fest line-up and more:
Arboretum 1 – Arboretum 2 – Arboretum 3
- The Steamworks – home to the June 17th Music Fest line-up, and other entertainment:
Steamworks 1 – Steamworks 2 – Steamworks 3 – Steamworks 4
- Vernian Rotunda – home to the June 18th Music Fest line-up, and other entertainment:
:Vernian Rotunda 1 – Vernian Rotunda 2 – Vernian Rotunda 3 – Vernian Rotunda 4
- The Welcome Area – teleports to the stages, Tapestry of Time, Pod Tours, Gift Area, Community Gallery and Shop and Hop; balloon rides and freebies for the celebrations.
- The Tapestry of Time and Gift Area.
- The Pod tours station.
- The Community Gallery.
Exhibitor Region Landing Points
| SLB Amaze | SL1B Astonish | SLB Astound |
| SLB Breathtaking | SLB Captivate | SLB Electrify |
| SLB Enchant | SLB Fantasy | SLB Imagination |
The inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by building a Happiness Machine; the young reporter who fell in love with an alluring lady of ninety; the old gentleman whose last act was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner, two thousand miles away.
The Kingdom of Galaway has a law – The Test of Kings – that every heir to the throne must work a year and a day as a commoner in order to prove they are worthy of being ruler. Not a great law when you are as lazy and indulgent as Prince Larry.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld