The Sponsors' Tale

 Organizing a big festival is always a huge headache, and you really have to take your hat off to anyone with the nerve to do it. They often end up making a significant financial contribution too, because the setting up of a temporary grid costs rl money. 

This year, the total cost of running the festival is $1040, and a little more than half that has been pledged.  One way that you can help out with it all is by becoming a Sponsor. 

For as little as three bucks you can get kudos and publicity, and brownie points with the higher power, so why not consider helping out? OK I may be lying about the higher power, let's call it the HG power.

There are lots of levels at which you can contribute, and each one brings a bigger slice of land, publicity and warm glowy feeling, although the last might just be the wine, so don't quote me on that. 

Any extra money generated by the sponsors will be shared out among the performers - there will be about 90 over the 17 day event. 
Here are some stories from people who chose to go ahead and put their hand in their pocket for OpensimFest. How hard is it to sponsor? why did they want to do it? What do they hope to see at the event?

Notes on a Safari

 This week two great musical guests, Joao Frazao and Moses Rae. Dang, even their names are musical. As usual HG addresses are at the end of the post.

Starting with destination two in this post, just to mess with your head. 

Belfast and Japan - Photo Finish

History featured strongly in this week's safari as we visited little slice of Asia and of Europe on two grids, Discovery and OSGrid, and found out about a past that may have passed some of us by. It's also a journey into the passion of builders, scripters, and virtual residents, as the kaleidoscope of creativity continues to enthrall us. HG Addresses as always at the end of the post. 

First up, the new project on the Belfast regions of Stiofain Mactomais. Known best perhaps for his music venue the Maritime, modeled on the real club of the same name where Van Morrison got their start, there's much more here - poetry, real world architecture, an exhibit celebrating the Belfast-built Titanic. 

This visit was to the Falls Road, and a project that can be enjoyed using your phone, Oculus rig, or as we did simply inworld.  Called the Belfast Archive Project, t's all about bringing the social history of this part of the world back to life in a vivid and accessible way. We met outside the inworld version of the historic Conway Mill.

Three Good Reasons...

Opensim Fest is still more than a month away,  but plans are already well in hand for this unusual event. A dedicated Festival grid will be home to a true meeting of minds as people from all over the hyperverse set up their exhibits and stores, and dozens of performers keep the party atmosphere going, each in their own way. 

Particles by Torben Asp

If you haven't registered for your free 'ticket' yet, don't delay. It will make it possible for you to sign up as a Greeter, or Performer, Sponsor, or Exhibitor. But wait - Still feeling a bit 'meh' about joining in? Here are three good reasons to get interested and involved - three performers who will be sharing their original content with us at gigs during the 17 day long event.

Come Fly With Me

This week's Safari was something of a time-travel trip of the mind as we visited two very different imaginings.  First on Kitely, at the International Spaceflight Museum where we saw the optimistic imagined future of colonizing Mars, and secondly, an imaginative past of empires and honor, on the grid CounterEarth. HG Addresses, as always, are at the end of the post.

I love ISM on Kitely, there is a stateliness and grandeur about the region.  A veritable forest of rockets dominate the Museum Ring part of the build, with ships, satellites and rockets from all over the world.

 The creators here include Kelly Bucklaew and Asterion Coen with smaller contributions by Samuel Greenway,  Ai Austin, and Miguel Rotunno, but the lion's share of the building is all down to the man himself, Mike Lorrey.

Aedifex Rex: the art of Nyx Breen

If you ever spent any time in the temples of art in Second Life, you will have come across the work of Nyx Breen. Based in Massachusetts, he has a long career as a real-world fine art photographer, and in virtual, a list of winning entries as long as your arm, in particular at the  UWA, the virtual campus of the University of Western Australia. 

After more than a decade of nurturing and rewarding digital art and artists, the UWA powered down in Second Life back in 2020. I thought the place was gone forever, but the great JayJay 'Zifanwe' Jegathesan tells me that the original UWA sim persists there, along with Nyx's Moreton Bay Fig. I asked JayJay about his friend and collaborator.

Kicking off in Canada and Japan

Finally, a true Safari! Earlier this year, on Season One, we had ten whole weeks of trips around the hyperverse without crashing a single sim or having any unexpected hiccups, in the main. That's disappointing, in a way, because for me, the Motto of OpenSim is Liberty, Variety, Instability. 

You've got to have a bit of danger, be kicked off a few sims, freeze, swap avatars, regroup at the clubhouse a bit. That's what adds to the fun, and the sense of group, the best bit of all in a Safari. That said, if you crashed or couldn't get into the two destinations this week, everyone who was able to do the tour will tell you they are both amazing builds, and merit a visit whenever you have the time. Both are huge, and give you the sense of the Great Outdoors, Indoors.