Lilia Artis and Haveit Neox, the world builders of Growanda, have created Faire’s Arts & Entertainment regions together since 2015. It is difficult to even imagine how much their creativity has shaped the world around the performances, how much their imagination inspires others walking through their regions. They speak of the build process, their reasons for returning to create once more, and the way creativity can be a helpful channel in any situation.
You have created Arts & Entertainment regions for countless years now. What was the first one? How many have there been? Has the process become easier in time, or do you come up with new challenges to overcome every year?
This is our ninth year building the Arts and Entertainment region. 2015 was the first time Lilia and I built a full region at Fantasy Faire. The name of our first region was Poseidon’s Abyss. The process from that time to the present is always a challenge and never gets easier because the concepts are different each year. We start out with confidence, followed by lots of doubts for too long, then little by little it starts to fall into place like a giant puzzle. But in one other way, the process becomes indeed easier, in building for instance, as we continue our learning about mesh.
In all this time you have surely collected plenty of favourite memories. Tell us about them!
Yes, we have collected plenty of memories which still make us smile. We also want to point out our appreciation of quiet moments when we are working with our neighbors to blend in the region borders. This is always a challenge because the regions are so different in appearance, but it tickles our creativity. Working in silence with other builders, visually inspiring each other to come up with new ideas to create a seamless transition, became a very precious experience.
What are you bringing to the Faire this year?
Having a store this year was a last-minute decision. Here’s another example of the degree of compassion one finds at Fantasy Faire. In the heat of the last days before opening, Haveit asked if there were any stores still available. He had not planned on doing a store because he was afraid of adding too much to his plate this year, yet he suddenly missed having one. But there were no more stores to be had anyway. Many people responded immediately with ideas and sacrifices on their part to give him a chance to set up a store. No one sleeps with the deadline looming, yet people went to this extent. No way was he going to put anyone through further pressure. But then Her High Faireness, Fantasy, came up with a solution to set up a shop in the Arts and Entertainment region, Growanda. As it is not a shopping region, Haveit decided to make all sales go to RFL. There, in the “Primmy Little Souvenir Shop”, you will find lots of exotic tropical animals, plants, and even crystals and sharks from the region Growanda.
Tell us of your Faireland. What sparked its birth, what is its inspiration? Does it have lore, secrets, stories? Tell us everything!
Everything is about our mothers and their love for us! But let’s start at the beginning: We did not want to build the region this year. There were a lot of changes in our lives the past year, we both lost our moms within two weeks of each other, and we were very close. Dealing with grief, creativity couldn’t have felt further away. Yet time was ticking, and we started to talk about canceling our commitment to the Faire for a year. But talking about it also revealed our deep connection and that we couldn’t imagine a year without it. Haveit originally had different plans for the build but had to postpone them for another year because of the late start. Feeling not very creative we were seeking motivation to keep us going, until Lilia came up with the idea to dedicate the build, whatever it would be, to our mothers. This suddenly opened a kind of flood gate because they always supported us in every way possible to pursue our creative work. They were our cheerleaders, and both loved colors and flowers and animals and whimsy cheerfulness. That is what we were trying to create with our build. So the story this year is a different kind of tale, it is all about the love for our mothers.
Thank you, Lilia & Haveit, for taking the time to chat with us and sharing your stories. Thank you for bringing us this amazing Faireland!
Fantasy Faire 