I attended the literature festival at Fantasy Faire today and it was rather a joy to behold. The session I attended was an Open Mic session whereby participants who were brave enough, could take centre stage and share their own personal stories, poetry and even Haiku.
Judi Newall was the star of the show but others volunteered.
I think virtual world storytelling is an under tapped market. There’s the opportunity to not only tell stories, but also to use the 3D environment to bring a story to life. Whereas today’s event didn’t use props, it still worked wonderfully well. There was a nice atmosphere and participants were well received.
I set off on the epic journey from the land of Dwarfins to Fantasy Faire in Second Life with just a few belongings. I had been given some tips, don’t drink too much mead, eat properly, don’t talk to strangers .. too much and most of all, head for The Spires Of Andolys as a first port of call. Spires Of Andolys, I was reliably informed, was a Dwarfin friendly region.
Upon arrival at Fairelands Juction, by means of teleportation, I looked for the magic portal. There were several portals at the landing zone but the one I was looking for was easy to find, largely due to a bright sign decreeing that this was indeed the way to The Spires Of Andolys.
After taking a step through the portal I arrived in a bright land, complete with a fairy tale looking castle and colourful buildings. I checked my notes, there were two points of interest, one being the mystery location of The Dwarfins and the other being a shop called Spires Of Andolys.
I found the shop first. This was, I was reliably informed, the work of Jaimy Hancroft, who is a lead designer with The Dwarfins. This all sounded a bit human to me but I sat outside the shop and ate some breakfast hoping that Jaimy would appear and guide me in the right direction. Unfortunately Jaimy was busy elsehwere and therefore I was left to my own devices. I decided to continue my journey through the the streets of The Spires Of Andolys.
The moment I’ve been waiting for … and some of you, has arrived. Fantasy Faire 2015 is open to all and sundry, including Halflings and Elves. This wasn’t my decision by the way, don’t blame me!
The Fairelands are awash with all manner of beings, to such an extent that some of the sims are full. However fear not, there are thirteen sims available, if you count Ravenshold, which will be hosting the second part of the hunt.
Start planning your adventure by visiting the full calendar of events, dust off your “bag of holding” for all of the great finds you will walk off with, and come shop for a great cause.
The offiical Fantasy Faire website also has a very good blog post about the opening of The Faire : Welcome To The Fairelands!
The portals to the Fairelands are now open, the camouflage enchantments dispelled, the whole continent of fantasy worlds awaits visitors to come and explore, enjoy and perhaps shapeshift into one of the Faire Folk.
This post is worth reading because it gives you some insight into the regions that make up The Fairelands.
Fantasy Faire 2015 will open its doors to everyone within the next hour or so but as well as being a magnificent example of fantasy related themes, creations, storytelling, art, poetry and much more in Second Life, it’s also part of the Relay For Life In Second Life fundraising effort on behalf of The American Cancer Society.
Last year’s event raised 5,955,893 Linden Dollars, that’s 23,824 in US Dollars. So far this year, before the doors have even officially opened, the event has raised 1,643,825 Linden Dollars, that’s 6,575 US Dollars.
Fantasy Faire is of course far from being the only event in Second Life raising money for Relay For Life. The combined total for last year’s fundraising efforts reached a quite staggering $415,000, yes that’s US Dollars.
At Fantasy Faire 2015 they will be holding a literature festival. I’ve talked about this before but more details have been posted about the event on the official Fantasy Faire 2015 blog : Are You Looking Forward To The Literary Festival (LitFest) At Fantasy Faire? By the way, you should be looking forward to it!
As the poster suggests, there will be story telling, poetry, bring your own fantasy tale or poem, discussion workshops, meet the author sessions and more. Whereas some of the storytelling will be from works of popular fiction, such as Caledonia Skytower reading from Lord Of The Rings, in other aspects of LitFest, authors will be reading or discussing their own work, for example :
Freyja Nemeth discusses her book “The World of Ice and Fire”
Freyja Nemeth says as her real life self Linda Antonsson “My partner Elio M. García (Ran Garrigus in SL) and I collaborated with George R.R. Martin on “The World of Ice and Fire”, a book about the history, culture and geography of the world of “A Song of Ice and Fire” (and “Game of Thrones”).”
Interesting? Oh come on, that’s interesting. There will also be interactive sessions such as :
Collaborative fiction game with Taralyn Gravois
In Between – A Magical Story – Tara gives the group the beginning and end of a story. We think of characters to be in the story and use the sim we are on as the scene for the storyline. Then each person adds a line to the story until we get from start to finish.
There’s much more and one of the wonderful thing about all this on a personal level is that it’s introducing me to new storytellers and groups in Second Life, new to me I mean, they aren’t new to Second Life, for example :
Speculative Fiction Saturday
Led by Simeon Beresford
Simeon Beresford leads a regular long running fantasy and science fiction discussion group in this special location for Fantasy Faire.
