Fest'Avi II

Last year, Francogrid's Fest'Avi was a blast, a fun family gathering.
The idea of the event is to get people - including those who don't think of themselves as 'artists' - to express themselves by creating an avatar. It was a way to get the Francogrid community together, and it worked. A bunch of local people participated, helping set up the sim as well as contributing to the fashion show. They included Cherry Manga, Erasme Beck, and Archael Magic, and several designers from beyond the FGrid frontier, like Alpha Auer, CapCat Ragu and Meilo Mintaur. 

Fest'Avi 2014

By the end of the event, OpenSim had more than a dozen original avies that newbies and oldbies alike could grab. They ranged from  Cyberwolf to Hibou, from Akiko to the Arbre, figures that have become synonymous with OpenSim. Fantastic avatars a world away from the humdrum human skins and shapes.

Akiko avie on the road (worn by Wizardoz Chrome)

This year, Fest'Avi exploded with an amazing light show and a new batch of avatars, eighteen in all, by Fuschia Nightfire, Cherry Manga, Imperator Janus, Dora Twinklens, Archael Magic, Zany Foxtrot, Cendres Magic, Capcat Ragu and Meilo Minotaur. 

Praline and Cherry (left center) dwarfed by the huge blue set, just one of a dozen compositions by Cherry

The avies were worn in the show by performers Cherry Manga and Praline B and they were brilliant, changing costumes and swapping out one build for another with (apparent) smooth calm. Want to see more? here are the Highlights of a show that was so good it could have lasted three times as long, for my taste...

None of it would have been possible without the rest of the Franco crew, including those mentioned above, plus Gill Beaumont, Ssm Binder, Nino85 Whitman, Cendres Magic and many more... if I try to list them all, you know names will be missing from the list, so ... add them in the comments, if you want.

Sim Avatar

But while the presentation of the new avatar collection (already available on sim Avatar, Francogrid) is impressive, another really nice innovation was the chance to attend Avatar-building workshops each Friday during the runup to the festival. It just shows how much closer the HG community is growing.  

View from the stalls of the oriental build

The Premiere was an amazing event. Each avatar or avatar pair (some are available in male and female form) had its own theatrical set, built by Cherry Manga.

 From an ocean to a desert to colossal abstract forms....

 ...from a Renaissance interior to a collection of postcards recalling the Safari, it was an amazing tour de force.

Stunning to look at, the entire production was brought to life by the music of talented  Christine Webster .

Christine seen here wearing Imperator Janus' fiery creation

The other really amazing thing was how well the sim stood up to the beating we must have given it. 48 avatars on the sim (I counted about 55 individuals present at one time or another, over the entire event) each one with all their hair and attachments, and while a lot of us found a poseball to sit on, thus lowering the lag by occupying our limbs in an impossible pose or two, quite a lot of the public were basically groundlings... all this, plus the huge sets coming and going in rapid succession, and the sim didn't flinch at all. 

Amazing work by grid co-founder and treasurer, Nino Whitman. 
We were all astonished by his prowess, it's unlikely that even an SL sim could have done better. Prims, mesh and textures seemed to rez instantly, despite the comings and goings of the audience.

The evening ended in great style. 
The ever lovely LadyJo Martin was our DJane, and she had picked out a whole set of vw and rl songs that had the 'avatar' as theme. As we danced, the sets from the show were reprised, and formed a second lightshow, as if we hadn't been treated enough. Especially as the new avies began to sprout all over the room...
A triumph. So... next year, will you be part of fest'Avi?