It's been a great twenty days. But all good things come to an end. And aside from staff and those who remained in the sims after Midnight (or perhaps logged in when you were last at one of the sims soon after Midnight), the Fairelands are now closed to the general public. The 2026 Fantasy Faire is now officially over. And once the sims fade away, all that will be left are the items in our inventory, the screenshots we took, and memories.
People in the Fantasy Faire group are continuing to chat, about the good times they had, the sights they saw, the items they got and found a place for, and more. And it will likely keep going for many days. I've talked to a few Relayers who have somewhat mixed feelings about the Faire, as it means smaller crowds for team events while it takes place. There's also that those with slower computers often have to wait until the evening to avoid the crowds, and lag. But practically everyone who's been at the Faire has fun with the sights, events, and/or shopping.
This year's Faire will be known for a few things, the "Children of Stories" roleplay in which a character died a heroic death, the Fairelands Quest with a faithful goat companion in which you try to get a sacred forest going with a single seed. Sadly though, this Faire had a shadow over it, the sudden departure of Patch Linden who many here saw as a friend and supporter.
For most Relayers, it's time to move on to another few weeks for team events, then focus turns to the Relay Weekend on June 13 and 14. For other residents, there's also the Bay City parade and Second Life Birthday, followed by the Fourth of July and the remaining summer months. But for the core fans of the Fantasy Faire, while some other events are still fun, there's nothing quite like those magical two weeks in late April and early May. And they'll look back on the last one fondly while looking forward to the next one.
Safe and exciting travels, Fairelanders,
Bixyl Shuftan
*Update* The Faire raised a total of 23,914,480 Linden dollars.
