Witching Hour

Witching Hour

Tonight was another one of those nights where you can only say, "Wow." It is always possible to experience this very special evening in SecondLife. And whether it is the unique and wonderful group of friends and guests who follow the theme, the choice of the theme that not only appeals to the former but spurs it on to be creative, or the preparation of the venue where it all takes place. I think it all has to come together. We have with the temple on our Mount Olymp in the Sunshine Realm a really unique place. And we have the Sunshine Family, our friends, who not only visit our event, but also take up a challenge every week and contribute to our success with breathtaking costumes. So maybe it was just luck that we wanted to have a formal ball in October too, and that we chose this theme and location. Anyway, today was such a special moment again, and I hope many people could feel it. I can only say "Thank you" to all who helped to make this evening so special.

And what many don't know, this temple on the mountain really only exists once in SecondLife, because it is not a prefabricated "building", which you can buy in the Marketplaces. We assembled it from several kits and parts, searched for textures and combined them. Actually, the temple was only planned for this one event. That's how crazy we really are. An idea that solidifies and is then spontaneously realized. A first attempt to build a temple with parts of these kits was our Ballroom Blitz Event in 2017. Here we let parts of the Sunshine Cove Beach Club sink into the sea during an earthquake and the temple appeared where Baccus and Dionysus, the roman and greek gods of frenzies, festivities, spiritual ecstasy, wine and alcohol celebrated great parties used to be. For us it was the place of a great formal night, and we managed to connect the beach club with a formal ball, our Ballroom Blitz. But just one day later this temple sank into the sea. 

Ballroom Blitz 2017

So it was no wonder that we remembered this year's Valentine's Day and built a new temple. We wanted a very special Valantine celebration, some of us are couples and love and romance play a big role. This new temple should be bigger, more impressive. Just so that all guests just stand and say "Wow". And big enough to offer many guests enough space to dance. Thus the mountain with the stairs, which leads up to our temple, arose after the model of the Akrobelis in Athens. And it was inaugurated with the "Hearts on Fire" event. And already this event was breathtaking and for a long time the most successful. 

Hearts on Fire, Valentine's Day 2019

Of course you can't pay attention to your own L$ balance, you always have to run through Second Life with open eyes and collect ideas. This is how many of our current places, the Sunshine Garden, the Realm of Shades, the Viking Village, our Winterland 2018 and also the Temple were created. And sometimes we ourselves are so in love with these new venues that we keep them. So we had wonderful events in the temple this year.

Air, Earth, Water or Fire in the Temple

Others will be deleted, such as the Viking Village. Sometimes we adapt a place later, like the temple to our "Venice at Night" event where we build a harbor with gondolas and the Canal de Grande.

Venice at Night in the Temple

But back to tonight. We wanted a formal ball every month. And even in October it shouldn't be any different. Even if we celebrate Halloween this month. And also in the previous years we had formal Halloween nights with "Monsters Prom Date" and "Bloody Formal Ball". 

Bloody Formal Ball in the rebuilt Throne Room

What should be other tonight. So the announcement for this event was only "black and formal" and "strictly formal". We said our friends guests thats no matter if they come as a witch or a warlock, as a vampire or a dark elf, or as a demon or a zombie. But the avatar should be mostly human. The only important thing is, it has to be black this time, and formal. We don't wanted see ragged and bloody clothes tonight and no decomposing zombies. And nobody should with casual clothes or usual halloween clothes. This shouldn't be so difficult. But many questions arrived us this time.

To help we have added later still: "We are invited to a formal Ball, maybe a feast at the royal court. What would you wear? The dominate color is black, maybe some dark red, purple. Men, its strictly formal, black tuxedo, maybe a festive ceremonial uniform.". We were curiously what people would be wear and hoped the theme is not to complicated for the guests. We prepared the temple and area around. All was finished before to have a great and unforgettable night with all. And which place could be better as our Sunshine Temple? 

So I had also have to look for a new dress, I was the last years with a bloody wedding dress to the formal dance balls to halloween. This time its should be halloween, witch and strictly formal. Not easy, but its fun to put together new outfits. Than it was finally time for the Witching Hour, our formal Halloween Ball this year.

We had very high expectations. It was our secret finale, a formal dance night and the Sunshine Temple. Also the number of visitors the night before with the "Festival of Frights" event increased our expectations. A Friday with a lot of visitors is often followed by a same Saturday. And, as much as I can say in advance. Our expectations were not disappointed. It was a breathtaking evening on our Mount Olympus.

And so much right at the front. It was such a nice evening, so many visitors and most of them came in awesome outfits. I took more than 100 pictures and "shot" many different people. So the selection for this blog this time is very difficult for me. I know how much it means to some when they appear on the pictures here in the blog. And I am happy that it is so. But it's mostly also a recognition from me, because a good picture in my collection starts with the preparation and creativity which these people or couples have made. It is just the challenge in the Sunshine Family. Because the pictures are all unedited, all pictures show SecondLife exactly as I saw it at that moment. So right at the beginning the reference to my Google Images Album in which I collected all the pictures. And my request that you just browse. Maybe there are some pictures of you. Or you can get an impression of this very special evening. Some things are harder to put into words, and pictures show the whole extent of the special moment. And I will use some more pictures as usual for this blogpost. 

When I came 20 minutes before the start to check everything again, DJ Yuimetal was already there. I checked the windlight and the lighting of the temple again and the first guests arrived. So we could start punctually at 4pm, and DJ Yuimetal's stream played into our sim and she took over the entertainment. Already in the first minutes many guests came. Actually always a very good omen, and the mood was from the beginning really exuberant.

DJ Yuimetal had put together a wonderful set for this mixture of Halloween and Formal Night. And our Sunshine Temple is really really an amazing spot for such special formal night. I want only remember again at the "Venice at Night" event in august or "Hearts on Fire" to Valentine's Day.

Now is this weekend the weekend with the most events in SecondLife. Its not randomly that SecondLife had so much issues this weekend again and it was so difficult to run this events. This is the same story every year. We were only in luck this year, that our region is more as half empty. But sadly isn't this luck, than we lost our wonderful neighbor Chant Lyrics with the problems in our sim about the last months. And this is our first weekend after this. Its reason enough to make a short break for a moment and to wish Chant in her new region more performance and luck as here at "Deep Lust", and the support to solve issues. Our region will lost a lot with this and I am afraid about new walls between the regions and uninspired builds of new neighbors.

I have already written that already at the beginning a lot of guests came and it got full faster. This is also a good sign for me. As always we started the event with a contest and filled the jackpot with 1,000 L$. Today there was a very big donation, and we could raise the jackpot after the first half hour to 5,000 L$. That set the record for our Back to the Winter event in January. Thanks to everyone who supports us again and again, some of you want to stay anonymous. Thank you for your support. So today we had more than 70 visitors again, unfortunately the flukuation came again. 

In addition, this time we showed no tolerance if guests in unsuitable clothes wanted to participate. We did not use the comparison with the royal court for nothing and made it clear that tonight it is "strictly formal". It was really funny when some people said "witches", I come as a witch. But just haven't read what we write. So I ejected 7 people out of the sim, and they didn't come back. Mostly this also means that the voting partners also do not come or just go. Be it now ALTs or real persons. So we had at least 7 more guests at the end together in the temple. But a good atmosphere is more important than the number of visitors and it would not be fair against everyone who played with the theme and came with just wonderful outfits.

Before the voting "only" 55 guests were together in our temple. I received many messages that the visitors enjoyed it, it was a wonderful event. And even if we might have had 65 visitors together without my intervention, it wouldn't be fair. And we also don't want to let our events degenerate, where the visitors think to come without any effort only 5 minutes before the end to take part in the contest and get some L$. So it was just a wonderful event and hopefully everyone had fun. For me it meant a few more IMs. The first ones before the ejection, with the request to change and follow the event to choose suitable outfits or to leave the Sim. Not many answers. But then there are the complaints, how could I throw the people out. But unfortunately this is also one of the events, and it would certainly be nicer to take care of those who followed the topic and contributed to making this evening so enchanting. 

Now the sim was almost empty, so despite the many visitors the voting was very even and there were hardly any delays with the board. So everyone could vote and shortly before the end of the event 45 people had voted. Of course we would stay today and invited everyone to come to our After-Party. DJ Polpeta would take over the entertainment. But most of them would leave as usual, so we said goodbye to them and wished them a good journey home. Of course I pointed out our Halloween finale "Nightmare on Sunshine Street" with DJ Yezika and her Nightwish Family. At the end we go back to the street in front of the Sunshiner's Pub. Nothing is prepared after that, but last year our scary beautiful event "Friday Fright Night" was there. I hope we'll be able to prepare the street for this event again. And I also invited everyone to come to our event tomorrow in the Club Room. DJ Polpeta will play 2 hours of rock music there again, before Joaquin Gustav will sing live again at 3 pm and accompany himself with his guitar. After the payout of the prize shares it was over and we were in the After-Party. 

I don't have much to say about the after-party. Its really the best part of the party and mostly naughty. DJ Polpeta had also put together a very good set for this one and entertained us very well. 

A lot of us were pulling bare and dancing topless. We laughed and joked, but unfortunately we couldn't get our men to take their pants off. Even though Phil in boxer shorts was certainly a good start. But even the threats of pain didn't help. After 2 hours the after-party was over and it was time for bed. Even though we could sleep one hour longer in Europe that night. And at least for a few days an hour closer to SecondLife and our friends from America.

I've written it since the beginning. I took a lot of pictures this time. I made them all available for you in a Google Images album. Have fun looking through them. On Tuesday we continue with "Nightmare on Sunshine Street". We are all looking forward to this event. And on Friday the Halloween time is over and we meet for a "Harvest Festival" at Sunshine Garden. All information about the "Upcoming Events" can be found here in the blog. We update this page regularly. So it's worth saving them as bookmarks and checking them out from time to time. We are planning a lot for November. Besides the harvest celebrations and the thanks to nature, it's also about the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which plays an important role in my home country. Even if many current events make me rather sad. We will of course continue to announce all events through our Sunshine Rocker Group. So it's worth it to be a member of this group. If you want to stop by, you can find the landmark here. And if you stumbled over my block by chance and are not a resident of SecondLife. It's really easy, you can open a free account and the software you need is free. Beside the official SecondLife Viewer there are also several third party vendors. So I use FireStorm. And how beautiful and realistic SecondLife can be, you can see on the pictures here in the blog or the Google Images Albums. We would be happy if we could also welcome you once.

Many of us also have Flickr accounts and I also have my Flickr. Also there are some nice pictures from the virtual world of SecondLife. and we also have a common group with pictures we made here in the Sunshine Realm. If you also made pictures in our Sim, you can share them here.