SL21B is Underway!

On By altathiemenIn Second Life, SL Events
A woman in a strapless, flame coloured dress and white, glossy hair stands at the left of the frame looking toward the right. She is wearing a dark red-gold crown. A stone ramp descends toward the viewer on the right side of the image. In the background, a stone block wall is decorated with large images of the Second Life hand logo, a flame, and partly obscured by the ramp, a leafy plant. A lattice structure can just be made out above and behind the wall.

Second Life’s 21st Birthday event has kicked off! I’ve been waiting this since the end of SL20B. At noon SLT today, some 45 general and 8 adult SLB regions opened to the public. That includes four, four-region stages and a number of filler regions in the central sea that, I don’t think, contain event or exhibit spaces.

Still, I have 53 regions and 310 exhibits to explore and 10 days to do it all in. Over that same time, there will be five town halls and community round tables. Over this coming weekend, the Lindens will host DJs and live artists at all of the stages, of which there is one at the adult regions this year. Starting Monday, dedicated volunteers will host 24 hour DJs and live musicians at those same stages.

So, I will have a nice busy time!

A man stands at a lecture podium with eight people seated in chairs to either side. In the background is a large SL21B logo on a stone disk. The disk is flanked by pillars with deeply carved capitals. Undersea plants and corals surround the disk and pillars.

Patch delivered the welcome speech at 2:00 PM SLT. There were no big announcements this year, but he did make sure to thank all the people it takes to put on this huge event.

A view from behind a man presenting while standing behind a podium. Several others are seated in folding chairs to his left and right. An audience of a couple hundred people sit in curiously shaped chairs. In the background, tall arches bound carved panels that are illuminated in gold, purple, green, and blue. A large moon rises between two of the arches.

The opening was well attended, with nearly 300 avatars filling the seating areas around the main stage. A few years ago, when similar numbers were approached, the regions had to be restarted. A couple of years back, there were glitches here and there. I have to say that this whole thing ran very smoothly even with hundreds of AVs looking on.

(Note, ones frame rate could suffer badly if one accidentally cammed back into the audience. It sook some patient flycam tweaking to line up the last picture above.)

I’m off for tonight, but I’ll be found wandering SL21B over the next week plus. Hope to see you there!

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