The end of Fantasy Faire 2015 is nigh. Bags are being packed, transport is being arranged and the sun is going to come down on the Fairelands for another year. This has been a charming event full of entertainment, art, roleplay, adventure and much more.
Second Life merchants have been displaying their fantastical wares to a grateful audience of fantasy enthusiasts. The Faire has exemplified that there is a market for these concepts.
The King, Queen and Chancellor of Fantasy Faire were elected. The nominees were based on people’s favourite fictional characters and after a topsy turvy campaign that saw votes swing one way, or another, Sir Terry Pratchett’s characters fought off a strong Steampunk challenge to sweep the board :
King Of Fantasy Faire – Havelock Vetinari
Queen Of Fantasy Faire – Granny Weatherwax
Chancellor Of Fantasy Faire – Greebo The Cat.
The results were announced at a spectacular May Day ball on Friday.
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.
1) Make sure you are following the Fantasy Faire blog.
Well this is a pretty easy one, but it’s also an important one. There are a few ways to keep your eyes on blogs, you can bookmark the Fantasy Faire website. Then there’s the follow feature which is available on WordPress blogs which will email you details.
Fantasy Faire is part of the Relay For Life fundraising effort in Second Life and the purpose of the “Why I Relay” challenge is for people who want to share their reasons for supporting the Relay For Life event. This is a challenge that is open to anyone, you don’t need to be a blogger.
A way of sharing your reasons has been provided by Catalina Staheli, who is taking portraits of people for the challenge.
If you want to blog about all the fun of Fantasy Faire 2015 then you can happily do so without being an official blogger. There is no requirement to be an official blogger, nobody will tell you off for blogging about Fantasy Faire, unless you’re an Elf or a Halfling, never trust Elves of Halflings. Ok even Elves and Halflings are welcome to blog about Fantasy Faire 2015!
Blogging Fantasy Faire can be a lot of fun, you get to meet interesting and magical people. Sometimes there’s mead involved, sometimes this can upset your blogging, you have to tread carefully.
Fantasy Faire encourages bloggers to take challenges, but does not force you to. That being said there are three optional challenges for bloggers :
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.
Please note that you are free to blog about these challenges even if you are not an official blogger, so don’t feel you have to apply to cover these themes.
