Review of September

Review of September at Sunshine Realm

It's been another month now. Time flies so fast. And now summer in the northern hemisphere is finally over, it's time for cosy moments around the fireplace and a warm blanket. And at the end of the month it is also time to look back on a beautiful month with many very different and exciting events. Now we had high expectations for the development of the number of visitors, because the months July and August were very successful, and it actually only ever went upwards. But it can't always go upward, and this month was also shorter, we had 2 events less than in the previous month. But that's no excuse. We will try to learn from these experiences. But this month fell short of our expectations. These were admittedly very high, so it is today again complain at a high level.

We started September with a special event. In the street in front of the Sunshiner's Pub a car wash was built and in the alcove an area for a sexy hand wash for the cars. It was a lot of fun and some nice pictures were taken before. On 3rd of September it was time for "Car Wash Day" at the Sunshine Realm and it was a very funny event and we had a lot of foam in the street. DJ Yezika had put together a fitting, fresh set and entertained us very well. We had 64 visitors that evening.

Then we went to Hollywood on Friday the 6th of September. We had been looking for a topic, it was another day for literature. But it was Odette and Phil who gave us the idea for this event. We organized our first "Hollywood Night" and asked the guests to take one of their favorite roles in a movie as a template for the outfit and come to us. 

So there were many fantastic outfits, and 74 guests came to this special evening that we did in our Burlesque Palace. And 60 were together in our beautiful Burlesque Palace. DJ Valantine was really awesome this night and entertained us so wonderful. 

Then it went on sporty. The NFL football season in the USA has started. And after we already had a Pre- Saison Party in August, and had built our Sunshine Football Field for it, we went back here again on September 7th, and celebrated a Tailgating Party as the season opener. 

Of course it was also about the Seahawks and the Team Conner and Misty's Bengals. DJ Yuimetal entertained us very well as usual and we had a nice event, and many guests followed us on this day, so we had almost 70 guests again. With that we had finished the first week in September and still the number of visitors looked very good. 

On the 10th of September we went once again to our gym in the Warehouse. Since DJ Yezika always comes to us on Tuesday, and she is our Latina Queen, we thought about how we could combine this. And there is Zumba, a special form of fitness that combines sport with Latin American rhythms. Well, we don't really do sports or give instructions for it, and you shouldn't necessarily use Zumba either, so we just called it "Fitness Class" and left out the word before that. Our guests were asked to come in a matching outfit and 74 accepted our invitation. And more than 60 were also in workout clothes in our gym at the same time. 

We wanted to go to the Sunshine Garden again for a long time to do an event there. This garden is especially beautiful, and the oldest of the active venues that has changed the least. Now we didn't just want to have a BBQ party, it should be a challenge for our friends and guests again. 

Looking for a theme we came to an "English Teatime Party" and invited everyone to come and celebrate with us in typical British style on the 13th of September.  Also here 60 guests came and filled the garden with life. It was a beautiful evening for all of us.

Now we have already made some time journeys, and not only into prehistoric times, antiquity and the Middle Ages. We were also in the 70s with the disco time and then back in the future in the 80s. For this we used the Sunshiner's Pub and decorated it accordingly. It is always amazing how our pub changes and offers the right place. Also on September 14th we went with our guests on a journey through time, this time into the 50ies. In the time, when the Rock&Roll the mainstream music prevailed, the young people often celebrated in gyms, and had to take off their shoes here. So they danced on socks, that's how the name SockHop came into being and of course we had a "SockHop Party" in the Sunshiner's Pub.

Again it was DJ Yezika who created a very good atmosphere, and many came with impressive outfits. It is always a part of our events. The time when our friends and visitors are challenged to find an outfit. This is what makes SecondLife so exciting, because we can be creative. And when we deal with the topics, we learn something about time, far beyond the borders of this virtual world. And so the days before the events are already an experience. And so it was this time. So it was really a time jump, we had arrived in time and almost 60 guests were there.

Then on 17th of September we had our first "Flight School" and built an airfield for it. The runway and some airplanes, the equipment for DJ and contest and we were ready to go.  Everyone was asked to come as pilots, flight attendants or ground crew. 

I wasn't just looking for a suitable uniform. Like at many events I visited different Sims, searched for existing objects in SecondLife, and had my own fantasies. So you can also become a F16 pilot in SecondLife. It is a world of dreams. And that's what we want to achieve with our events, we want to awaken fantasies and animate our friends and guests.

This has also been very successful with this event. DJ Yezika and the Nightwishes always take part in the challenge to find a costume, and Yezika had put together a very good set again. It was really wonderful to see them all in different outfits. But the number of visitors was declining. Here we still believed that the topic was perhaps too complicated for some. But the second half of the month was generally worse visited. So that evening only 40 guests came and 29 were together in the Sim. And I know it's complaining on a high level. Other Sims would certainly be more than satisfied with 40 visitors. 

This summer we had some events at our Caribbean Beach, which we had designed in the Sunshine Realm. We had swimming lessons, sunbathing, surfing and a reggae party. So we were shocked by the devastation hurricane "Dorian" left on the Bahamas. And even though we are here in SecondLife and didn't really want to collect donations, it was important to us to point out the misery and suffering of the people there and to point out the donation possibilities via the "Red Cross" or the "Red Crescent".

So we met on the 20th of September for our "Bahamas Support" event at our Caribbean Beach. And almost 60 guests accepted the invitation and there were some interesting conversations.  

On September 21st we celebrated music, art and creativity by honoring the International Reeperbahn Festival tonight. Since 2006, the Reeperbahn Festival has brought music, art and culture together with a focus on social issues and positive change. The festival shows new music films and art from all over the world. It was reason enough for us to honor this festival and bring it to the Sunshine Realm. It was time to bring this to Secondlife with a tribute Repperbahn Festival. 

But we didn't want to make it too easy either. That's why we published a weather forecast for the Sunshine Realm. On this Saturday we expected wind and heavy rain showers, so everyone was asked to come with rain clothes for an open air concert. We used the place near the Sunshine Realm again and rebuilt the meadow and stage we used for the Woodstock anniversary. Also the road and a farm were back.

And many guests came, and most of them had chosen rainproof clothes. Some came in wet clothes and danced in the rain on the meadow. DJ Yuimetal had put together a refreshing set and entertained us well. Again we had more than 60 guests.

And also the After-Party was very good again. Here DJ Polpeta entertained us with a mix of music from German band and singers like Scorpians, Rammstein and Doro Pesch. And of course we didn't let the rain stop us from changing our waterproof clothes into lingerie and dancing topless in the rain. 

Music is always a powerful force at Sunshine Realm. Over the years we've held events featuring the musical genres of Rock, Metal, County, Punk, Jazz, Blues and Reggae. At the 24th of September celebrated we our first Urban Dance Music Festival.

We met in the street with the alcove in front of Sunshiner's Pub and DJ Yezika entertained us very well. We had a lot and danced. But this time it was rather casual outfits, loose jeans and shirts. But this event wasn't as well attended as we had expected. Only 39 guests came that evening and only 32 were together at the end in the alcove on the street.  

So we looked forward to the final weekend and hoped to address the guests once again with two exciting topics and to motivate them to come. We started on 27th of September with another GoT special. Many of us are fans of the TV series "Game of Thrones" and have waited for every season. So we met for our "Winter is coming" event in the Realm of Shades. Our last GoT- Special was in April. 

Now the Realm of Shades is always exciting and a bit scary. The old gothic church ruin is in a fantastic venue and I often say it's our Counter-Earth. So we enjoyed ourselves very much and many came in wonderful outfits. DJ Valantine entertained us with good music.

Maybe we got a bit confused with the name of the event, and people didn't want a winter event yet, or the first Halloween events in other Sims took our guests away. With only 32 guests it became the worst attended event in September, and we had to realize that a bad result can be undercut again. Only 24 friends and guests were together in church and we had to learn that such a poor result is possible on a Friday. Maybe some didn't know that it was a medieval world event, or it was too complicated to put together the right outfits. We can only guess.be it was because the TV series has ended and the final season has been broadcasted. So the tension about this topic isn't that high anymore. 

But that didn't break the mood. It was a wonderful event and we all had fun. And there was a naughty After-Party too and we changed the clthes against lingeries. And also we start soon into the Halloween time.

During the event "A Night in Venice" we had decided to organize at least one formal dance night every month. Now the month was over again, but we used the last event on 28th of September. We went back to the temple on Mount Olympus at this saturday and celebrated "A Night in the Roman Colosseum".

We caused some confusion with the name of the event. Well, Rome and the temple, that's the mixture of fantasies. And that's what we wanted, so in the invitation we also played with these themes, and slaves and gladiators brought us game. Even though it was just a formal event, we were curious about how our friends and guests would use the theme and what outfits we would see.

Now it was the events in our temple that were always particularly well attended. In addition, the formal dance nights are always very well attended. But here we had caused the confusion. So we were curious. And we were not disappointed this time. And so we came a little more optimistic into October, because there were again almost 60 guests and there were again more than 50 friends and visitors together in our beautiful temple. DJ Yuimetal entertained us with dance music and we enjoyed 2 hours together.

And like usual we made our naughty After-Party and DJ Polpeta entertained us for 2 hours more. 

The Month in Numbers

Already in the last months I have finished the review with such a section. Now we were not able to take advantage of the good performance of the summer months and finished somewhat worse than we expected or hoped for. But don't forget that due to the month in September we had 2 events less than in the previous month. This makes the comparison a bit more difficult and also puts the result a little into perspective.

In September we had 12 events and 687 visitors at the Sunshine Realm. At the end, 567 were still at the venue. We distributed 21,500 L$ over our contestboard to our visitors. Thanks again to everyone who donated during this month to give us the opportunity to do so. So we only lost the previous record of the previous month by 250 L$. And that with 2 events less. Many of our visitors took part in the contests again and there were 433 votes. Also here only the months July and August were more successful, but also here the result is relativized by the lower number of events.

Thus the sums for 2019 have also increased. We had 5,764 visitors so far, and distributed a total amount of 173,000 L$ to our visitors over the contests. With this we have continued our concept. 

Even if the numbers look a bit worse, and our high expectations for September and the end of the summer hole were not fulfilled, it was a good month. If you take the absolute numbers, it was the 3rd best result in 2019, adjusted for the number of events only August was better. 

We are looking forward to the coming month. It is already casting its shadows ahead and we are planning many beautiful events. And of course many Halloween events. And of course there will be an Oktoberfest at the Sunshine Realm again. This time we have already planned the whole month and all events can be read on the blog page "Upcoming Events". We would be happy if you would visit us in October.