If you didn’t come to this last year, you *really* missed out on something special. Jairus Khan(Ad.Ver.Sary, Antigen Shift and sometimes even iVardensphere…) is BACK at World Goth Fair tonight at 7pm at the mobile unit. Jairus is one of the sweetest, nicest people, and everyone had a blast last time he came to DJ for us. So spend your night at the mobile unit! We’ll see you at 6:45 (so Jairus doesn’t have to make the same joke about all goths being late again…)
World Goth Fair, by Wildstar Beaumont
I can’t even believe how well that went. Especially that it started so strangely. SAM crashed completely on Lee the *moment* he pressed play leading to two minutes of cursing and panic until he rebooted the program. We were worried it was an omen.
It wasn’t.
18 hours of music, one club packed to the gills, a BUNCH of people that stayed for *ALL* of it (omg what is wrong with all of you…) and as far as I know? No one repeated a single track (I’m not sure how that even happened.)
Some serious thank yous, though:
To all our guest DJs. You were wonderful, especially as for most of you, I wasn’t able to be there because I HAD to sleep. Thank you all so much, please by all means come back and do it again.
Shari Cortes. Folks, she was so kind to volunteer to host for Lee since his usual host was going to still be at work, and then wound up hosting *two other sets* on top of it. Totally above and beyond the call of anything reasonable and sane.
The Gothika Staff who are the hardest working goths in SL, as I have said for seven years now. It’s still true. It’s so easy to work with professionals. Lokii, Pie, Rydia, Lee, and Kostika THANK YOU. We remain the Greatest Show Unearthed. (How did none of you play that track?)
Amelie Barbour, for the AWESOME projection lights. I love them like loved things. People were asking about them all day.
I don’t know if anyone else recorded their sets (Pie?) But Lee’s set is here:
http://www.mixcloud.com/CruelBritannia/dj-cruel-britannia-at-world-goth-fair-may-22nd-2015/
and mine is here:
We had no real problems. No one got banned (which I am SURE is a WGD first.),
Thank you all so much again.
As mentioned all day, we have a BUNCH of music events coming up in the next week, including this one:
Yes, he threatened to do it last year, but this year he’s actually showing up, and we love him for it. More music stuff coming. We have lots left to show you at WGF this year.
We’re starting a little early this year. But hey! More music for all of us. Get ready to get your goth on.
Have a poster.
Succubus, by Duchess Flux
…writing the wrapup post always feels like the ending to Saturday Night Live, where the guest host is in a rush to thank everyone and winds up forgetting half the people anyway as the credits are rolling.
On Saturday Night, Jairus Khan laughed that all goth clubs everywhere are the same- everyone always shows up late. It’s true. Everyone basically sauntered in 15 minutes after he started, but things picked up a lot when he finally remembered he had a microphone and said hi. It seemed like that was the moment the club got packed, and Jairus stayed on the decks for three hours. (!!) He seemed to have a good time, and I know people *definitely* enjoyed his being there and want him to come back, so maybe we can make it a WGF tradition (he’s welcome back at any other time, too, of course.) He also managed to get an Antigen Shift hoodie over his Ad.Ver.Sary t-shirt. He’s one of those rare people that picks up how SL works intuitively, (there’s like four of them, ever.) so getting around was no problem at all for him*.
(*This is the moment that Lee reads this and begins muttering about how two years later he winds up standing around without pants and a box on his hand.)
Sunday, the last full day of the event was pretty quiet, as last days usually are, but we actually started to have a strange, unexpected rush as the night wore on.
Last night there was a mad, last minute rush at the hoodie gachas. People were sending their alts down to make sure they got the hoodies before they disappeared. In truth, the hoodies disappeared from Cursed last, even though that was the machine that kept inexplicably giving out fatpacks in greater numbers. I still don’t know how many we sold yet, but definitely well over 1000 (we were at 1000 not long after the machines dropped.)
…aaaand it’s World Goth Day, by Shyntae Demonista
I locked the sims down at midnight, although merchants and bloggers flew through after that and grabbed stuff they missed while the crowds had been there during the run. Every time I thought I had a final total, I would refresh and see it had gone up yet again. After about six times I figured I’d just leave it alone until morning.
The charity rep contacted me mid-morning (his time) and I talked him through the cashout process. The total for WGF 2014 was 753516, or $2932USD or, if you like, 1750GBP.
I turned the money over to SOPHIE this morning:
I realize everyone just went “MexicolaWHAT?”. Sorry about that- not my doing. It’s the name they chose for themselves. But if you actually look them up in search, you’ll find this:
Just to set aside any concerns there. I have been assured that as soon as all the money hits their paypal account, they will send us a written confirmation I can post here to let everyone know that the charity itself got all the money.
And then I went to bed.
So, basically done and dusted for another year. Org is already talking about what needs to change for next year- what can be added, and what should be pulled. We’re already planning for next year, albeit exhaustedly.
Now, as the credits roll I want to thank all our merchants, who busted ass to bring all they could to the event, and for creating the wacky and supportive atmosphere in event chat that we all get to enjoy. Our bloggers for absolutely tirelessly putting out post after post, and being so fantastically creative with all they do for us. The bands (omg the bands) who continue to support us in all kinds of ways. We are always amazed and grateful. Thank you. All the shoppers who came down and got their goth on for two weeks, tossing money into vendors and tip jars. To Jessica Lyon and the Firestorm Team for their constant support. Finally to all my fellow org team members. Gang. when I tell you we work 20 hour days for 6 weeks, I mean it. We all do. And then we get up and do it again.
Our next *regularly* scheduled event is A Clockwork Spiral, in mid September. Applications for that will open August 1. HOWEVER, there may be an event before that- just a one shot. We’re working on it and will announce as soon as we know.
Keep it spooky, gang. We’ll be back soon.
-AK
Sleeping Beauty, by Devin Vaughn
Crow Killer, by Kostika Mistwaker
We’re now in to our last weekend of World Goth Fair for this year. You don’t have much time to go shopping so if you haven’t done it yet, make a run for it! I truly think this year’s selection of stuff is even better than last year.
We can never really thank everyone enough but we do keep trying- so thank you to everyone who keeps supporting us, and the charity.
Tonight, as a reminder we have a VERY special event.
Jairus has just done his tech check, and even has a working mic so he can say hi to everyone. This is his very first time DJing in SL, but after seeing WGF last year he was very excited to try it out this year. We’re so happy to have him with us and really encourage EVERYONE to cram themselves into the mobile unit at 8.
If you want to listen remotely, you can! the stream is http://aqua.neostreams.info:8036/listen.pls
SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cursed/65/129/1020
All tips tonight go to SOPHIE, so please remember to tip those smiley jars.
Our current total, by the way(as of noon SLT) is 730488L, or $2842USD.
See you all tonight!
Yes, folks – as promised. The one and only Jairus Khan will be at the Gothika Mobile Unit live (not a tribute band, not a pre-recorded set. Him. Live.) at 8pm SLT to do a special DJ set at World Goth Fair.
Jairus is a *really* wonderful person (honestly- I mean that with the greatest sincerity possible) and I invite everyone to come down and enjoy this very special DJ set with all of us at Gothika.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cursed/65/129/1020
All proceeds will benefit the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, of course. Spread the word. Get an SL account if you don’t have one. But come up and listen to Jairus. It’s an evening well spent.
Abyssal, by Byrne Darkly
Ok the photo has nothing to do with the DJ set, but it is really lovely. Well done, Byrne!
First thanks are in order to BCreative Wilde for putting out such a great set on Friday. The crowd wouldn’t let her leave- she was there for 3 hours, rather than 2,and she even gave out random hoodies to people when she herself won a fatpack (she gave away her duplicates to people at the event. Thank you so much, B!
But yes, it’s true- we have another guest DJ set today at 4pm SLT. Cursed’s own Alisa Perne who happens to also be one of our bloggers, but even more coincidentally lives on Cursed all year long (and I’ve only deleted her house by accident twice in four years!) will be at the Gothika Mobile Unit for two hours of the dark stuff.
SLurl: To Cursed
Tonight at 8pm, we have (theoretical) Pie spinning..whatever it is he likes. I expect it will be a goth set, but he might surprise us with something more industrial. Either way he won’t know what he’s doing until he does it. But everybody loves Pie, so come on down and get your last slice of the weekend at 8 Pacific Time.
Just to catch people up on what else is going on this week- on Wednesday at 4pm we have the Tiny Invasion. Last year’s was absolutely bonkers, so be prepared to get small (and put some earplugs in cause the little ones are LOUD). They’ll be spearheaded by Alexis Radikal of Tiny Bit Radikal once again. All tinies and micro avatars welcome at the mobile unit.
On Saturday, May 31, Jairus Khan of Ad.Ver.Sary (and Antigen Shift, and even sometimes iVardensphere) will be DJing live at the mobile unit. Time to be announced – Jairus has been a bit busy at the Aftermath festival in Toronto this weekend so I’ll catch up with him in the next couple of days.
For those who are interested in trading duplicate hoodies, or if you’re looking for those elusive rares – Synjari was kind enough to start a thread on SLU for that.
So you can go there and trade away! Once again I will note that for reasons I can’t explain (because all the machines are exactly the same- I promise you…) the one on Cursed seems to give out more ultrarare fatpacks. I don’t know why. I just know it’s worked out that way. So if you’re trying to win one of those, people have had good luck there.
I haven’t as yet had the time to count them all but I do know from a quick mental estimate that in the first three days the hoodies have been out, we have sold over 1000 of them. This is awesome and we can’t thank you enough. ALL the proceeds go to the charity, and we appreciate the support of real bands and licensed content in SL as well. (The bands do too. I was just explaining how many we sold to James Francis of Panic Lift on Saturday night and he was amazed at how fast they’ve gone.) We sold 2084 shirts last year, so maybe we can beat the record!
Hypnotizing, by Sonya Marmurek
In other news- a bit of admin I need to take care of.
We do understand that sometimes, people are hearing about WGF for the very first time in the middle of the event and suddenly get the urge to show support of some kind. But at that point, the best way to do it is to just come down and shop the event, or toss some cash into one of the tip jars. Sending us gift cards to your store won’t help – we have already passed the one contest day we do during the event (World Goth Day itself) and we only take GCs from merchants already in the event anyway. So if you send us stuff we only have to send it back and explain that. If you want to participate, we open applications for merchants on April 1. Applying is no guarantee you’ll get in, but it gives you significantly better odds than just handing us merch/gc’s, which definitely won’t work. We love that so many people want to participate but we have to do it in an organized fashion.
Also, we’ve had several requests for interviews. Here’s the deal on that: The only person who is likely to agree to this is Lee (Cruel Britannia.) That’s how it should be- World Goth Day itself was his gig to begin with, and since he does a lot of interviews on his own shows, he is comfortable doing them. But for some reason people keep asking me instead.
I am terrible at giving interviews. I speak too quickly and sometimes people have problems with my accent. Also, I’m REALLY not comfortable talking to random strangers like that so unless you’re someone I already know pretty well I’m probably going to say no. It’s not personal, but it is a firm decision. Everyone else at org has definitively said they won’t do interviews at all.
So the person you need to speak with is Lee. Please bear in mind that he is in the UK, and as such is 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time. He also is not inworld very much (really only 2 hours a week, on Thursdays.) So if you want to reach him the best way to do it is to contact him on twitter (@CruelBritannia) or on his website, http://cruelbrit.co.uk, or on facebook. Please also be aware that a reasonable amount of advance notice is required.
And now, with one full week left in this year’s WGF… the current charity total is: 648745L or approximately $2525USD. With one week left to go, we have plenty of time to once again crack the million linden raised mark!
more news tomorrow!
You Can Always Take More Than Nothing, by Ely Hynes
So we all survived another World Goth Day. It gets bigger every year. The tweets come in from all over the world (it’s comedy gold.) mainstream publications talk about it in ways we don’t expect (which is mostly pretty cool.) and we get up and do our thing on the Day That Isn’t Amateur Hour.
For me it usually goes by in a blur. This year it was a blur accompanied by a migraine brought on by (how very goth) an incoming storm cell, but in the end, we did it. For our part we had 12 hours of nonstop music at the mobile unit I’m not sure who got photos but if you did, let me know- we were pretty crowded so moving the camera around was an adventure.
Razi Panic of You Shriek came to visit us (twice!) and Pie fell on his head. At this point it’s now become a tradition, I think. Next year, it’s Razi’s turn to fall on someone again.
Apparently people have found the hoodie gachas. I can’t thank everyone enough for playing them- getting them together is one of the hardest things we do for this event. It requires a huge team effort and every part of it is work. What I appreciate most is that people seem to get that licensed content and real bands are worth supporting, and if given a way to do both at once, they’ll take it.
For the record, even though the machines on all three sims are set exactly the same way, for some reason the one on Cursed seems to give out more of those ultrarare fatpacks. I don’t know why – REALLY, they’re all set exactly the same, but that’s how it worked out yesterday.
I’m sure someone will eventually set up a hoodie trading thread on SLU. When they do, I’ll link it so people can trade their duplicates more easily. In the meantime? Go get more hoodies, because man they’re awesome and once the event ends they are GONE. We’ll make something new for next year.
Dark Prevails, by Duchess Flux.
Our bloggers are awesome. They really, really are. I don’t even know how they do what they do. I just look around and they’ve done it. Have you seen our Flickr pool? It’s great, and if you have WGF images you’d like to share you can post them there too.
So now that another WGD is behind us, we have PLENTY more stuff coming up at WGF. Today at 2pm Pacific time, BCreative Wilde, one of the oldest goth DJs on the grid will be doing a special set for us up at the Mobile Unit. Tonight at 8pm, our own Lokii Violet will be kicking off Spiral Twin Friday and at 10, The Pink Nightmare, Rydia Suicide will grab the decks from her until Midnight Pacific Time.
We have other events coming up in the next week as well- some as yet unannounced. So there’s plenty remaining for this year’s World Goth Fair.
As promised, I have the current total:
The current total raised for SOPHIE is 567986L or approximately $2210USD. We still have more than a week left to go, so we have lots of room to raise that total for an excellent cause.
Thank you so much to everyone who has joined us as a merchant, come down, donated, walked around, shopped, taken photos, listened to music and grabbed some licensed merchandise. We just set up the playground every year. You guys are the ones who fill it, and we love you for it.
-AK
Hey all!
I know everyone’s kinda anxious to hear the totals from World Goth Day, but it’s easier to do if I just let the ticker run til noon SL time today.
What IS time sensitive, though is that today at 2pm Pacific time, BCreative Wilde will be doing a guest DJ set at the Gothika Mobile Unit. She’s one of the oldest Goth DJs on the grid, so please come down and say hi, and stick around for even more of the dark stuff.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cursed/65/129/1020
It’s sure to be an excellent set, so goth up and come on over to the mobile unit at 2pm pacific time today!
(Also, since we’re talking about it – Lokii Violet will be on as usual at 8pm and Rydia Suicide will be on at 10pm tonight as well!)
So, because it was apparently my fault (ok, it was DEFINITELY my fault), I got to kick off 12 hours of DJ sets in World Goth Fair. By this time the gachas were out on the sims and people were shooting Lindens into them like pensioners in Vegas. Razi from You Shriek even showed up for some of the set, and it’s highly likely that his ‘I’m going to sandwich now’ farewell may have been connected to the throng of adoring fans in the room scaring him a little…
But I digress from the actual point of this post. You didn’t have to listen to me, nobody did. World Goth Day was a crazy idea from the off, but the concept caught on, with no barriers stopping it from crossing oceans and broadband connections, finally entering minds and hearts. Four years on and the joke is still funny. Thank you.
Anyway, I did the decent thing and uploaded tonight’s set to Mixcloud, just in case you missed it. http://www.mixcloud.com/CruelBritannia/after-hours-at-club-gothika-22nd-may-2014-the-world-goth-day-kickoff/
-DJ Cruel Britannia
World Goth Fair 