The May Day Faire

Last weekend, the Relay for Life held it's May Day Faire for 2012. This was a smaller event than the Fantasy Faire last week, taking place on two sims instead of nine, Maypole and Mayday. But there was more of an emphasis on events and group participation. The event had a Medieval/ Renaissance theme to it, with many dressing the part. The two sims were divided into plots for groups, all lined up on both sides of a brick road that wound around the two sims, with a music stage in the middle.

One group's plot had two free outfits, one male, one female, for anyone to grab a copy. I went ahead and grabbed the mens'. Different groups had different things on their plots. One had a burlesque tent on their land, but to the disappointment of many males (and relief of the staff) entering the tent, there were no hints of anything but a show not exceeding the PG limits of the Relay event. One Brazilian group had a castle and smithy, with the letters H, O, P, E being worked on and red hot.

The Doctor Who team had a deserted-looking plot with a tradis tipped over with small fires licking at it. The Cure Chasers had a tavern with a kissing booth next to it, which wasn't too far from some barrels of ale of which the girls might have needed a double helping with a few certain avatars. One team was offering dragon rides, with a suggested donation of 50L each. Perhaps no up-front payment was demanded as no one was going to short-change a huge roaring dragon, at least no one who couldn't run away very fast. I took one, and it was quite a ride up there.

Among the areas that were manned which I ran into were the Giant Snail Racing staff's "Giant Snail Relay." RacerX Gullwing was there, explaining that he ran a few races each afternoon for both of the days, and anyone was invited to take part. All one had to do was wear one of the "tiny" giant snail avatars, which had three Medieval/Renaissance outfits, mage, damsel, and warrior. To make things interesting, there were occasional patches of mushrooms that sprouted around the track. Stepping on one would result in being sprung into the air. I took part in one such race. The two regular snail racers quickly took the lead, leaving me and RacerX competing for third place. As luck would have it, I ended up hitting an obstacle, and RacerX zoomed ahead. I was 4rth out of 5.

The Passionate Redheads, of which this reporter has been a member of, held their own booth. It was a variation of a "jail and bail." This was more like "stock and bail," of which those arrested on various charges, of which the accuser had to pay a fee, had to sit in the stocks until their fee was paid. To make things interesting, there was a free "tormentor's kit" with things like ticking feathers and throwing tomatoes to "entertain" those locked away. At one point I saw Sunweaver leader, and Redhead, Rita Mariner reaching behind one girl in the stocks to give her such a tickling while another worked on the feet with a feather.

Last but not least was the music stage. Trader1 Whiplash would DJ there occasionally, but more often there were other DJs as well as the occasional live musician. I dropped in on one event sponsored by the Flying Tigers, with Jessii2009 Warrhol among the dancers.

Dusk Griswold later announced the Redheads took in 14,000 Lindens from the Faire, "which was the highest total I could see of any kiosk there. Special thanks go out to Rita Mariner, who supplied the items in our booth, as well as set it up and spent a lot of time running it. It was a lot of fun, and we did very well."

I didn't hear the final total raised by the Relay for the event, but around 11AM Sunday Trader1 Whiplash stated almost 800,000 Lindens had been raised by then, and expected the event to net at least 1,200,000. Of the team totals, by now the Passionate Redheads passed the 90,000 Linden mark, closing in on Silver status. The Steelhead Salmons are 188,500, with few Silver teams over them. Six teams have passed the one million Linden mark, True Blusers for the Cure, Team OD, Goreans in Relay for Life, Amaretto Ranch Breedables, SL Music Races for a Cure, and one Purple rank, Friends Fighting Cancer, which has raised over 6,300,000 Lindens.

So far this year, the Relay has raised over 46,800,000 Lindens or over $187,000. And the season is not yet half over.

Bixyl Shuftan