Another Opensim Fest comes to a close and I would like to take this time to share some of our reflections on the event and say a huge, huge thank you to everyone that took part this year. Opensim Fest 2020 brought together a wide variety of creators, builders, scripters, merchants and performers to celebrate the creativity and community around Opensimulator. 

Exhibitors

For me (Leighton) my main role is to put together the exhibitor region and getting people to exhibit is one of my favourite things to do as part of Opensim Fest. I enjoy getting to know some of the most creative and inspiring builders in Opensimulator and to watch them construct their builds each year is inspiring and humbling. The cross section of individuals, groups and grids that took part is broad and I would like to thank each and everyone of the exhibitors that contributed this year. 

HG Address: opensimfest.org:80:Exhibits East

I would like to thank John Shepphard, Bill Blight, Bethany Winslow and Valibrarian, Caro Fayray, Jeff Hall, Art Box, Vbinnia Radek, Kaylee West and Singh, Littlefield Grid, Cherry Manga, Tina Bey, Blender class and BritGrid, Virtual-HG, Fitheach, Cyberserenity, Sam Adama, Virtual Learning Village, Shetland Sheep, Contessa Lacombe, Tigerkitti, Cnayl Rainbow, banker ibor, OpenSimulator Community Conference, Modee Parlez, John Paradigm, Han Held, Utopia Skye Grid. I would also like to thank Deva Darling for volunteering this year with us for all three days much appreciated.

To find out more information about the exhibits and the creators you can visit the exhibitors web page (HERE) and the video below shows each of the exhibitors that are on the region. You can also visit the region until the 22nd September using the hypergrid address below and if you are not in Opensim I have included some instructions below on how to visit us.

Merchants

This year we had a new group of people from the Opensimulator community join us, merchants. Luna Lunaria did an impressive job bringing together the merchant and I would highly recommend that you go to see the region before it goes on the 22nd September. We are going to continue to invite merchants for next years fest and you can contact Luna nearer the time if this is something that you would like to do. We were not sure what the response would be from merchants in Opensimulator as they dont really have many things to take part in. The response once the merchants heard about it was phenomenal and Luna had a very busy couple of weeks running up to the Fest and was still settling merchants throughout the weekend. 

To find out more information about the merchants you can visit the merchants web page (HERE) and the video below shows each of the merchants that are on the region. You can visit the region by using the hypergrid address and if you are not in Opensim I have included some instructions below on how to visit us.

HG Address: opensimfest.org:80:OSF Merchants

Performers

Oldesoul Joined us this year as our performer organiser and no stranger to large music and virtual world events he put together a diverse range of performers to entertain us at Opensim Fest 2020. From the Friday through to the Sunday dj's, live singers and spoken word performers took the events regions and the performances were incredible. Having a weekend of live performances is a traditional part going to back to when it was called Avatar Fest and we are so pleased to keep it as part of the festivities every year. 

PyroVR closed the weekends events and it is probably the most impressive performances that I have seen in Opensimulator for a while. It was an incredible way to bring the festivities to an end and am humbled to have them take part in Opensim Fest for the second year. Brava to everyone behind the scenes you did an incredible job and hope you return next year. 

A few words from the Organisers

I wanted to include a few words from each of the other organiser and here is what they had to say:

Oldesoul our performer organiser said:

"A big thank you to all of the  performers for showcasing your talents at the OpenSimFest. Your contribution was valued and enjoyed by many. All of you represented a wide variety of music and the grids in open sims.  Thanks to Utopia Skye Grid, Kitely, Littlefield, Discovery, Alternate Metaverse, OSGrid, 3rd Rock Grid, and DigiWorldz. Music brings us together in a manner like  nothing else can.  We are looking forward to seeing many of you again next year.  Always, Smile, Have Fun, and Play Awesome Music".

Luna our merchant organiser:

"A sincere thank you from me to all of our merchants for all your hard work during Opensim Fest 2020. It was an absolutely fabulous presentation from everyone during the main festival, and it was such a pleasure to work with professionals such as yourselves. Thank you especially for your patience as we worked through some unusual scripting issues. Last week at this time we added the region to Opensimworld.com. By Sunday evening, the Merchants region had moved in rank from 1340th to 12th overall in traffic. We did that together! I also want to extend a hearty thank you to all of the many visitors and shoppers who came out in such numbers to support an Opensim group that has never before been represented at the Festival! I hope our work inspired you to dream bigger on your home regions."

Bill our server admin said:

"I would like to thank everyone that attended this years event.  I would also like to reiterate the point that Fest will always use the latest in OpenSimulator code, and this may cause some growing pains for some.   But we see it as continually moving forward and not remaining stagnate.  Please consider this when taking part in fest.  It is very valuable that we get feedback on what works and doesn't so we can correct those issues and/or pass them along to the appropriate developer."

Grid closing, OSGrid region and Next Years Fest

The grid will be going offline on the 22nd September 2020 and only the Landing, OSF Merchants and Exhibits East will remain up till then. But dont you worry if you would like to stay in touch with us during the offline phase you can visit us and leave us messages on a region on OSGrid. Next years grid will come online around May 2021 and if you want to take part grid registration will open then. 

A note to contributors this year as we will not be saving any of the content on the regions if you need anything you need to remove it by the 20th September as on the 22nd everything will be deleted. You can also keep in touch with us via our email addresses (you can find them on the About Us page), Discord and our social media accounts. 

I cannot say this enough a huge thank you to every one that contributed to and supported us this year we are very grateful and it confirms to us that there is an amazing community of people in Opensimulator. Please keep in touch and see you for Opensim Fest 2021.

How to visit if you are not in Opensim

To get to Opensim Fest do the following (you will need Firestorm for Opensim 32bit and 64bit downloads are available HERE):

  1. Visit this page and create an avatar here https://www.osgrid.org/accounts/?q=user/register
  2. Open the Firestorm viewer
  3. In the Grid selector select OSGrid
  4. Use the username/password you used to create your account to login
  5. Open your map (ctrl+m)
  6. Copy and paste "opensimfest.org:80:Fest Landing" (without the speech marks) and hit enter

 

Discord and Social Media Links

 

Hello Opensim Festers we are 60 days away from this years Opensim Fest and want to invite people to take part. We have already managed to fill all the performer spots but we are still looking for exhibitors, merchants and volunteers. This is a great opportunity for the Opensim community to express the creativity and continue in the tradition of the Fest.

Exhibitors - we have a range of different sized plots to pick from and you will have full creator rights on that plot. If you are an individual, group or grid you can take part we ask two things that you are in Opensim (or at least have a demonstrable presence here) and be hypergrid accessible. We are not providing promotional space for anything but we ask that you showcase your grids community, social or creative side.

For more information about taking part as an exhibitor please visit the taking part web page (here) and then use the contact page or you can email me [Leighton] (exhibitor organiser) and you can find contact details at the bottom of the About Us page. You can also ask us questions on our Opensim Fest discord server you can find the link the menu bar at the top of each page on the site.

Merchants - we are trying something new this year were we are asking if merchants would like to take part in the Fest we are not sure if this is something that merchants would find useful but we felt they should be part of Opensim Fest, because without their contribution to our community we would have little to nothing to create our parts of the metaverse. So we are reaching out to merchants to see if they would like to take a plot on the grid this year. At Opensim Fest the organisers take a broad view about our community and want to include as many as possible while maintaining a focus on the community, creativity and the social aspect of our virtual lives here in Opensim. 

For more information about taking part as an merchant please visit the taking part web page (here) and then use the contact page or you can email Luna (our merchant organiser) and you can find contact details at the bottom of the About Us page. You can also ask us questions on our Opensim Fest discord server you can find the link the menu bar at the top of each page on the site.

Volunteers - with so many people being around for the Fest we would like to ask people that have a spare hour or so over the weekend to act as greeters and discord hosts. The volunteers we had last year were amazing in some challenging circumstances. If you would like to help get in touch using the contact form, we do not have a volunteer organiser yet so you can contact any of the organisers if you have any questions and we will be holding a training session for volunteers 2 weeks before the event. We encourage you to join discord as we have a channel setup for volunteers to communicate before and during the event. 

That pretty much kicks of Opensim Fest 2020 and we look forward to hearing from exhibitors, merchants and volunteers. It has been as a strange year so lets all come together as a community and celebrate our virtual lives, friends and communities.