Fantasy Faire 2014 – DJ’s And Events

Fantasy Faire isn’t just about shopping, roleplay, hunts, prizes and auctions, no there’s more and this comes in the form of entertainment. The best way to keep up with the entertainment schedule is to read the Faire Happenings page, which gets updated regularly.

Now a point worth noting is that DJ and live music events usually take place onboard the FFR Radio Ship FaireChylde. This is a ship that is held in the air by a dragon. However yesterday the ship moved from The Palace Of Tears to a new location in Blackwater Glenn. This took many by surprise and I can assure you that a Dwarfin King falling surprisingly from the sky makes one hell of a surprising sound.

However the entertainment could still be found and Lisa Brune was entertaining the crew of the ship, as well as some stowaways.

Lisa Brune

I’m assuming the ship has been moved because the second part of the hunt is now open and that takes place in The Palace Of Tears sim.

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Fantasy Faire 2014 – Ballet Romance of the Faery Court

Prior to the start of this year’s Fantasy Faire there was mention of a ballet. I pondered whether we would see Orcs in a tutu, unfortunately that didn’t make the cut! However a ballet has been produced and can be seen on YouTube, I will embed this at the end of the post.

The ballet is set in the Faery Court sim and therefore, unsurprisingly, involves Fairies. In this case it’s a romantic tale between the Seelie and Unseelie courts. For those who are not familiar with these terms, The Seelie court are generally known to be prone to a bit of mischief but are generally well intentioned. The Unseelie court on the other hand  are darker in mind and can be far more vicious in their dealings with humans and others.

However neither court are set in stone to be good or evil, or so the legend goes anyway. The production takes advantage of the virtual world setting of Second Life to make an extended stage out of the sim and is a good example of how a virtual world can be utilised for such a production.

Elico Ember is the designer behind the design and build of The Farey Court sim but many other Second Life names appear in the credits, from dancers to designers who provided outfits and accessories. What we see here is again something Draxtor Despres has been highlighting so well in his Drax Files World Makers series, collaboration in a virtual world with people from diverse backgrounds and locations working together to create a production.

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Fantasy Faire 2014 Hunt Part 1 – Fimbleby’s Wager

The Fantasy Faire 2014 hunt is on, after the hunt was bailed from jail at the weekend and then released. That was a very busy boat I can tell you. The hunt is split in two parts, the first being Fimbleby’s wager in which :

a loud-mouthed drunk bets that he’s smarter than you. Head for Wiggenstead Mooring and find Fimbleby in the Jolly Crocodile to match your wits against his, prove him wrong and win what others have lost before you – and an extra something that might just come in handy later…

The second part of the hunt will take place in the Palace Of Tears, which is quite an eye catching location. Here are the details and costs :

Fimbleby’s Wager lasts until the Fairelands fade away after May 11th. The Palace of Tears will be available for hunters longer, since it is on a separate sim that will stay on the grid until May 18th.

The hunt HUD costs 250 lindens, which covers both Fimbleby’s Wager and The Palace of Tears. If you begin hunting only after Fimbleby’s Wager is gone, the HUD will be 150 lindens and cover only The Palace of Tears part of it.

The hunt HUDs are available for purchase at all the landing points of the Fairelands, all the HUD money goes to RFL.

Now, first things first, pay attention to the text, because someone not a million miles from here spent a long time looking for a jolly crocodile called Fimbleby, look it’s Fantasy Faire, talking crocodiles are perfectly feasible! However I was supposed to be looking for a place called the Jolly crocodile!

Jolly Crocodile

 

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Fantasy Faire 2014 – Events,Roleplay And Hunts

Fantasy Faire isn’t just about shopping, they have events, roleplay and hunts to come too. Fantasy Faire Radio is spinning the tunes onboard the FFR Radio Ship FaireChylde. However being as this is Fantasy Faire the ship is held in the air by a giant dragon! There you will find the DJ booth and you may even meet some funky looking DJ’s.

Dakota Christensen

There are also live musicians from time to time, a good place to find out about by happenings is via The Fantasy Faire website, particularly the Faire Happenings page.

Two hunts are planned for this year’s event, scripted by David Abbot and designed and constructed by Rynn Verwood. The first hunt will be FIMBLEBY’S WAGER :

A loud-mouthed drunk bets that he’s smarter than you. Head for Wiggenstead Mooring and find Fimbleby in the tavern to match your wits against his, prove him wrong and win what others have lost before you – and an extra something that might just come in handy later…

The second part of the hunt takes place in the Palace Of Tears, which is open now.

Palace Of Tears

However you will have to wait to see what secrets lie within. There are some mysterious looking statues around that sim, I wonder if they will come to life?

Statues

 

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The Drax Files Episode 19 – Virtual Chemistry

This post is not about Fantasy Faire, I repeat, this post is not about Fantasy Faire! I do make one or two non Fantasy Faire related posts during Fantasy Faire and in this case I’m looking at yet another excellent episode of The Drax Files  : World Makers, in this case; Episode 19 – Virtual Chemistry. I will, in traditional fashion, post the video at the end of the post.

In this episode the star of the show is Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt from Texas A&M University, who is very enthusiastic about teaching chemistry in Second Life. There are some very good reasons for this and they are reasons that may surprise some people.

One of those reasons is that students who engage with Second Life report that they enjoy this aspect of their course, in some cases they enjoy the virtual labs more than the real labs because there are less distractions in a virtual lab. I must admit I’m surprised to hear this but maybe it’s because someone in a virtual lab feels more in control of their environment and that the environment is less hazardous.

Another advantage of teaching chemistry in Second Life is that Second Life is a 3D world and Chemistry has a lot of interests in shapes of molecules and understanding their 3D nature, which a 3D virtual world can demonstrate admirably. Then there are interactive periodic tables, at this point I was tempted to run screaming from the video, periodic tables are the stuff of nightmares, however I persevered in the name of truth and justice.

Yet again we see the use case of collaboration being highlighted regarding Second Life with Wendy pointing out that people don’t need to be physically next to each other to build together or examine each other’s work.

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