The 2015 Fantasy Faire Calendar is now available in the real world on lulu.com!

The Fantasy Faire Calendar for 2015 has been released in the real world!

You can now buy your own slice of Fantasy Faire to share with friends and relatives in the real world (and raise money at the same time for Relay for Life of Second Life).

 

Fantasy Faire calendar January: Hope’s Horizon – photograph by Justen Tyme

The calendar is available on lulu.com at www.lulu.com/shop/elizabeth-tinsley/fantasy-faire-2015/calendar/product-21954745.html, and is priced at US$14.99 (UK£12.18 – you’ll have to check other currencies for yourselves!) and, with 3-5 days delivery, really makes the perfect Christmas gift for friends and family.

All profits from sales will go to Relay for Life of Second Life.

The calendar contains twelve beautiful images of fantastic kingdoms, mysterious temples and enchanted forests. It celebrates the Fantasy Faire 2014 with exquisite pictures capture the amazing creativity of the worlds designed for the Faire and keep both the beauty of place and purpose alive in our hearts for the coming year.

Fantasy Faire calendar August: Medhir Woods – photograph by Judith Lefevre

The pictures were chosen from those entered in the Fantasy Faire Calendar competition, submitted through the Flickr group.

The photographers are:

MONTHS
Cover: Faerie Court – Ursula Floresby
January – Hope’s Horizon – Justen Tyme
February – Asperatus – Alisaundra Andel
March – Palace of Tears – Wildstar Beaumont
April – Mourningvale Thicket – Caitlin Tobias
May – Fairelands Junction – Cayenne Republic
June – Heavenslough – Vylna Daviau
July – Wiggenstead Mooring – Gabrielle Swindlehurst
August – Medhir Woods – Judith Lefevre
September – Faerie Court – Tamarind Silverfall
October – Blackwater Glenn – CharuStar
November – Hope’s Horizon – Beq Janus
December – Sanctum – Pokute Burt

Fantasy Faire calendar October: Blackwater Glenn – photograph by CharuStar

It will also be available inworld shortly on the Marketplace for L$500 – and there will be a special extra with that – but we will tell you about that when it’s released!

In the meantime, why not stock up on a special real world Christmas present for those you love – and maybe one for yourself too?

Fantasy Faire calendar February: Asperatus – photograph by Alisaundra Andel

 

The very last chance to enter the Fantasy Faire Competitions!

Palace of Tears, setting for the second stage of the Fantasy Faire Hunt, designed by Rynn Verwood, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

This year we have been running two contests – one for Photographs of the Faire, and a Story Story/Poetry competition too. Both these contests will close at midnight today (May 31st).

In the Photographic Competition, we are looking for the photographs that best capture the spirit of the sims – and the winners will be included in a calendar (with credits for the photographers) that will be created in real life using Cafe Presse and sold to raise money for Relay for Life. So this year, people really will be able to take the Faire home with them – and share it with their friends and family too!

You can find full details of the competition here (and note that the deadline was extended from May 11th – May 31st).

Fairelands Junction, designed by Saiyge Lotus and photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

For the short story/poetry competition, the top entries will be published in the summer issue of Prim Perfect magazine, coming out in September 2014.

You story/poem can focus on one region – Sanctum, or Hopes Horizon or Heavenslough, for example – and ignore all the others. Or you might use the juxtaposition of two regions, or even draw on more of the Fairelands, as a whole vast realm, perhaps surrounding an inland sea. It’s up to you. And your story or poem can be sad or happy, wise or witty. It can make us laugh, cry, gasp, nod with agreement … or do all of these things by turns.

But we must have it by midnight today!

You can find full details of the competition here,

The Faire Goes On…

I’m sitting on the quarterdeck of the Fairechylde as I write this, moored at the top of Hope’s Horizon with an amazing view out over the Fairelands. And it’s quiet, so I can really crank up my draw distance and see everything the Grid will let me see. It is a sight both wondrous and humbling, to see the scale of what I’ve had the enormous privilege of contributing to. By the time the Fairelands recede once more into the mists I think I’ll have spent about three weeks here, and I know there’s no way I’ll have seen it all.

And I think that’s a good thing.

Because there is so much, everyone’s Faire is unique. It’s your story: nobody else will have had quite the same Faire experience you did, or I did. Each of us carries a different part of the Faire away in our hearts. It is wrapped in our own love for this incredible place, kept safe so we can bring it back next year. For a lot of us, it’s a battery that recharges our enthusiasm and creativity. It’s a hope, too, in the better angels of our natures; a touchstone of what we can accomplish when we band together. The magic of the Fairelands is not made of prims or mesh or music, it is made of us.

All of us.

Without builders, there are no sims. Without merchants there are no stores, Without DJs there is no music. But without people there is no life here, and everyone is important. Every foot to tread the stones of Sanctum, every gasp at the Great Tree of The Faery Court or the sight of Hope’s Horizon, every smile in Wiggenstead Mooring, every silent tear in Junction… all of these – and so much more – are the breath and heartbeat of the Fairelands. A heartbeat that lasts throughout the year.

So do not mourn when the Fairelands slide away. They are not gone. We carry them with us and keep them safe for another year. As they return so do we, and life goes on. Hope goes on. The Faire goes on.

Fellow Fairelanders, I thank you all.

David Abbot
Coordinator, Fantasy Faire Radio
Writer and Coordinator, The Palace of Tears

The Hunt Goes On!

Although the Fairelands are fading back into the mists, there is one sim holding onto the grid for just a little bit longer: The Palace of Tears sim stays in existence, open and alive for a week still, all the way to May 18th.

This means that you can finish the second part of the hunt at your own leisure within the Palace. The hunt HUD vendors will sell HUDs that cover only this second part of the hunt, since the first part will become impossible to work on once the rest of the Fairelands are gone. Obviously the HUDs you purchased during the Faire will continue to work as well.

Come solve the puzzles, admire the art and enjoy the last Faireland of year 2014 for just a little bit longer!

The Mourningvale Murders: The Solution

You may remember that three suspects were detained for the gruesome murders in Mourningvale Thicket and, on Saturday, Fairegoers had a chance to question the suspects and then to pay Lindens to vote on their innocence or guilt. You can read about it here.

After much investigating (and much arguing) the good citizens who gathered for the unmasking of the murderer finally saw the shapeshift of the arrogant and murderous Baron Giles De Rais into Barron, the demon that he raised. The people had voted and had – fortunately – got it right. (Nearly 8k was raised for Relay for Life just on this event! Thank you all so much!)

The other suspects were Belial and Maleficent, both guilty of many things, but not of being the serial killer. The Baron /Barron has (have?) been sent off for 100 years of torture in the jails of Sanctuary.   Hopefully he does not escape too soon!

But … you never know!

The Sanctuary Roleplayers who created this wonderful event say:
“We of Sanctuary RP sims loved coming to the fair and playing out the mystery with you and hope to see some of you come visit us some time!”

You can find out more about Sanctuary here and here.