4th of July Party

Belated Independence Day

Today we celebrated the Independence Day of the USA with our belated 4th of July Party. This Holiday has a long tradition in Sunshine Realm and the previous clubs. So we celebrated this day 2017 in the Sunshine Cove Beach Club as Surprise Party for our friends from USA and last year already here in the Sunshine Realm, in the Sunshine Garden.

Many of our friends come from the USA and the 4th of July is the most important holiday there. SecondLife is also "born" here and our club runs in American time. The 4th of July commemorates the independence of the United States and stands like no other day for freedom and democracy, for the values of the western world. The Text of the Declaration of Independence was far ahead of its time. At that time Europe was still divided into feudal principalities and kingdoms. 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

So it should be celebrated in general. And we made our 4th of July Party today one day to late. We have often used the street in front of Sunhiner's Pub for bigger celebrations during the last weeks and have extended it by the alcoves with the big stage. This is where the Independence Day festivities took place this year.  We prepared the street and decorated the house fronts and the huge stage in the alcove. 

We were somewhat worried by the problems with the performance in our Sim. Unfortunately nothing has changed in the prerequisites. Furthermore it was a bridging day and many of the engineers of SecondLife were on vacation. So there were some residents in the whole Grid who reported minor problems, some crashed and some teleports didn't work. Bad conditions for this so important party, and we expected 50 guests.

Quickly the first guests came and already after half an hour we knew that we would also reach the 50 visitors. We had reset the boards, our Sim was restarted. We had again very clear delay in loading the textures, especially when new guests arrived. And also the events sometimes took longer than usual, but the lag remained within limits, which all could endure. So we were looking forward to the final of the event and were also confident for the voting.

DJ Valantine was in charge of the entertainment, and when we came to the Sim at 4pm, she recorded her stream and thrilled us. She had put together a mix of different music about the USA and patriotism, and ended up playing nice country music. We were all thrilled and she helped us once again to organize a successful event.

We're always happy when our friends come. And when they look forward to the topic and prepare. So many were there again today. Others could not come, because they were bound by dates in the RL. But our friends help us with every event to fill a prepared place with life. 

After one hour there were already more than 40 people there. As always we started the event with a contest over 1,000 L$ in splitmode. By an anonymous donation we could increase this amount to 2,000 L$. Of course some guests came late again, because they are only interested in the contest and they optimize the attendance time. So 30 minutes later, when we closed the registration for the contest, we were 53 people in the sim. Altogether there were more than 60 guests on this evening again, unfortunately especially the friends from Europe often cannot stay until the end. To bridge the time until the voting, we started the first fireworks in honour of Independence Day.

It was a beautiful, colorful and loud firework that was a lot of fun. And so the 15 minutes to the voting went by and we started the voting. Of course we hoped that it would work without any problems.

Then we opened the vote and fortunately everything worked reasonably well. So we voted all 41 participants until the end. We then finished the main event, of course with a reference to the Rockin' Roller Derby tomorrow. Many of the guests left us during a second fireworks display. Of course we were relieved that everything worked out so well despite the bad conditions. Partly because our guests were reasonable, and this time we didn't recognize anybody who clicked fast series on the board to get an advantage. It was a good event.

Even though many of the guests leave us after the main event, it is the after-parties that are so much fun for us. On Fridays Valantine usually plays another hour longer and we stay together with some of our friends. It can get hot and erotic. But that's also the Sunshine Realm. And in the end most of them dance with naked upper body, no matter if man or woman. At 8pm the after-party ended, almost everyone had left and we said goodbye. 

I made some more pictures and saved them into a Google Images Album. Maybe you want explore the Album and found a picture of you. Or you get an impression about events at the Sunshine Realm. If you want visiting one of our event may you find the information in my blogpage "Upcoming Events".