IoW Winter Festival 2007 Commentary
From Cathedral in the north to Lethe in the south, from Eragon in the west to Lyre in the east, the whole of the Dragon Isles is abuzz this weekend with the excitement of the Isle of Wyrms Winter Festival. In an effort to ensure that the little details are retained, I'll be "liveblogging" the event on this page to some extent, beginning with a little catchup from last night.
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Event Synopsis and Timetable
From the Isle of Wyrms Winter Festival Event page:
The whole weekend will be underpinned by many ongoing small events and games, booths showcasing what the Dragon Isles are all about, as well as dragon rides and a Festival-long, Isles-spanning dragon egg hunt, where lucky winners can claim a free dragon avatar.
Please see that page for all the major details and come back here for commentary and hopefully some photos throughout the weekend.
Rides Location SLurls
A comprehensive list of the rides available during the event along with links to teleport to them can be seen here.
Grand Opening: Friday, December 7th
The grand opening featured speeches from the progenator, our Great Hedgewyrm (Daryth Kennedy), Great Wyrm Elder (Onix Harbinger) and the IoW Mayor (Apollo Aridian). These speeches are reproduced below, with thanks to Skye McArdle for the chat logs:
Great Hedgewyrm (Daryth Kennedy)
Hello everyone ^.^ I’d just like to welcome you all to the grand opening of the winter festival ^.^ As many know, I'm a hedgehog who speaks more through prims and neat creations than words, so I will keep this short ;)
I'd like to thank the volunteers, guides, mentors, ambassadors and guardians for their time spent busily working to prepare for the festival, your energy and kind spirits have come together to create a truly wonderful community event ^.^ the next few days are packed full of events and activities and I hope everyone enjoys themselves and has fun. And always, think of the hedgies ^.^ (they love you and thank you for all the incredible donations and support ^.^)
Onix is next with a few words, then I believe our mayor Apollo has a speech prepared ^.^
Great Wyrm Elder (Onix Harbinger)
Once again, greetings everyone and welcome to the Isle of Wyrms Winter Festival. As Daryth mentioned we have a large host of events lined up for you this weekend and I look forward to seeing you all having fun and enjoying yourselves. This is our first Annual Winter Festival; Kalira Stromer started this tradition at our festival this last summer. Twice a year we will be holding these festivals and all proceeds earned during this time will go to St. Tiggywinkles Animal Hospital. If you would like more information on the charity feel free to visit our booth later on located in the Limbo Sandbox, or visit St. Tiggywinkles.
It has been a challenging year for us here at the Isle of Wyrms. In the RL realm for many of us it has been a difficult year, and here in SL with it's own particular challenges I find myself very fortunate to be in the company of such a great community who can pull together and create this wonderful event. Everyone please give applause to my volunteer help staff, who have worked so hard to make this event for you. ^.^
Shortly our Mayor, Apollo Aridian will be giving his speech. Apollo and Aradia Aridian are the proud owners of Hatchie Haven, one of our newest neighbors here in our small cluster of sims we call the Isle of Wyrms. Their sim is a fun haven for hatchlings and tinies. Be sure to pay it a visit while you check out our many events and entertainments. Also recently we have been joined by Eldmar, Imladris, and Eragon. They too are a part of our neighborhood now and are free to explore. Ryu Durragh and Jesmaine Tzara are the owners of those new sims. Whew... We're growing arent we? It was just shy of a couple years ago that we started out with a small isle in the middle of nowhere. Now we've grown, in no small part thanks to our volunteer staff, into a thriving and constantly evolving community.
There are things to look forward in the future. More events such as this one and many new things to see. Daryth has a big imagination and she will no doubt be sharing her visions with us all as we watch the island change and grow anew with each season. There are new avatars on the horizon, and as time goes we are getting better at improving our service to our community here at IoW. It is my honor to participate in this process and I look foward to seeing everyone here having fun at this wonderful event. And now without any more delay. Our esteemed Mayor, Apollo Aridian! Come on up Apollo. ^.^
IoW Mayor (Apollo Aridian)
As we enjoy the winter festival, I look around and can't help but think of how fortunate we are at IoW to have such a wonderful community that has the talent and capability to put together an event like this one and carry it off with style and aplomb. It would be an impressive feat on its own and becomes even more of an achievement when we viewed in the context of the growing challenges of building and even logging into SL. I wish to thank everyone who has worked so hard behind the scenes to bring this event to life. We are so glad to have all of you as members of the community and hope that you will all be a part of it for as long as it is here.
The past 6 months or so since the Summer Festival has seen many changes about the Isles. The addition of sims, a drive to be multilingual in the official Isles documentation, the continuing expansion of our Dragon Clans and many more besides. The community grows ever stronger through initiatives like the new Drum Circle II, held at a European-friendly time and through the continuation of old favourites like the Monster Build Contest. Even as SL becomes more challenging to navigate and understand, our corner of the grid continues to grow and flourish and we have each other to thank for that.
As 2007 draws to an end we can look back at the year as one of growth and expansion throughout the Isles, both in the sense of community and in the virtually physical places here. There are more places to visit at IoW and more people to visit them with than ever, and yet we still maintain the deep sense of community that brought so many of us here to begin with. We are a fluid body that adapts to our environment as it is presented to us, for example with the way we revised and changed the Release Events to cope with both our expansion and the new lag fun of modern SL :) If we as a community continue to be flexible in the things we do, we will surely succeed and be around for the long term.
In closing I would like to acknowledge all the dragons who make this whole experience possible. There is much hard work that goes unseen and much time invested that goes unsung in order to make the Isles the success that it is. All of you who put forth such efforts should be proud of what you do here for our community and be assured that your dedication and drive are noticed and appreciated. Have fun and enjoy the Winter Festival! I will now hand you back to Daryth and Onix to continue the show!
Concert by Cypress Rosewood
Cypress Rosewood rounded out the evening with his unique brand of Space Music, preforming a breathtaking concert of wonderful ambient melodies, his musical dreamscape drifting and echoing perfectly in the cavernous Cathedral.
Day 1: Saturday, December 8th
Following the Opening events last night, the festival begins in earnest. There's a plethora of rides and amusing stalls to entertain, from informative ones about the hedgehogs and the concept of the Dragon Isles to giant log flume rides and much more besides. The day begins with the first scheduled event:
Dragon Bounce
The sim is Eragon, the mission is to leap and jump about and see if the combined might of dragons, hatchlings, hedgies and other avatars together is enough to topple the sim. So far lots of hatchies and some dragons have made themsleves a little dizzy, but the sim is surviving!
As of 10:40am SLT the objective of the event has been met: "Tiny Hickman: Eragon crashed into the sea by the bouncing dragons lol" Please note that this event is intended to be humourous in nature and there was - to my knowledge - never more than 15 people in the sim during the course of the event.
Dunk Tank: Jahdo Ohtobide
As of 11:30am SLT, our very own Jahdo Ohtobide has put himself up for dunking at the Dunk Tank in Limbo. Jahdo is the dragon behind the questions in the Isle Quiz, so here's your chance for revenge if you couldn't answer some of the questions.
Hatchling Pie Raid
Now 12:00 noon SLT rolls around, and word on the street is that some hatchlings are gathering for a secret pie raid! So if you see a gaggle of cute little hatchlings coming your way you may want to hide your pies.
Update 12:30pm SLT: It seems the event is over. Congratulations to those in the know who made it there!
Gingerbread Mini House Contest
A reminder at 12:45pm SLT that the Gingerbread Mini House Contest is setting up to be judged at Tir Infernis so come over and see the entries or submit your own.
Update 1:55pm SLT: Judging continues and voting will be open from 2pm SLT, so don't forget to go over to Tir Infernis to see what's what in the mini Gingerbread House event and cast your votes for the cutest and best houses.
Update 3:20pm SLT: Since a few folks have asked, the way to vote is to click on the nameplate of the entry that you want to vote for. A blue popup will appear asking you to choose a category, best or cutest, and you should click the appropriate button. Since things are a little laggy, you may need to wait a moment or three for the dialog to pop up.
Update 4:20pm SLT: Winners:
- Best: Kath McGill
- Cutest: Jorden Allen
A Big Thanks and Well Done For All Those Who Took Part In Judging and Making Entries, And Congrats To The Winners.
Hatchie Snax Balloon Ride
Occasional Balloon Tours depart from Limbo, next to the Festival HQ. We flew a long tour beginning at 4:50pm SLT and ending just a few minutes ago at 5:45pm SLT. I would have liveblogged the journey but I was the pilot. We flew from Limbo into Lethe, Lyre, Tir na Lir, Tir Infernis, Cathedral, Tir na Nog, Hatchie Haven and then a loop south and west through Tir Niva and Imladris, Eldamar, Eragon and back through 'Niva, Lethe and north to return the balloon to Limbo. Despite being the pilot, I did manage to get a couple of quick snaps off:
Day 2: Sunday, December 9th
Due to technical difficulties & an RL family event, your intrepid liveblogger missed much of the day, but resumes with:
The Dance/Dragon Ball
Joining the Ball fashionably late at 5:25pm SLT, we find many dragons already engaged in a civilized dance:
Some of the folks featured in the photo: Skylarian Isachenko, Stripey Larkin, Zhuria Beauchamp, Neikrad Joffre, Ragitake Takakura, Onix Harbinger, Daryth Kennedy, Solomon Draken, Thoms Vansant, Apollo & Aradia Aridian, Grey Lock, Talarus Luan, Skye McArdle.
Update 6:10pm SLT: After much deliberation, the Guardians have chosen Jabrael Yifu and Kismet Dyrssen as the King and Queen of the Ball. Congratulations to Jabrael and Kismet.
Fireworks Display
7:30pm SLT sees the sky aflame with starbursts of fire:
Fin
At the stroke of 8pm SLT as the last embers drift out of the skies and the crowds disperse, Talarus Luan officially declares the Iow Winter Festival 2007 closed: Thank you all very much for coming and participating in our Winter Festival! We hope you enjoyed your stay, and please do come back and see us often! Don't forget our regular scheduled events, the Drum Circles and Wyrm Wyrds every week!
