Pioneering virtual world Second Life will celebrate its 20th anniversary with events running from June 22nd to July 11th, 2023, spanning a mind-boggling sixty sims! The theme this year is Our Fantastic Future.
Twenty-four of those sims have been set aside for the biggest-ever Shop and Hop event. You can’t get in yet, but you can already get an idea of the futuristic design in these thumbnail images used in the Second Life Destination Guide entries for the SL20B Shop and Hop sims:
As in previous years, if you join the Second Life Birthday group for free, you will be able to access the 24 Shop and Hop sims starting at 9:00 a.m. SLT (i.e. Second Life Time/Pacific Time) on July 21st, 2023.
In addition to the 24 Shop and Hop sims, there are an additional 36 sims for the Second Life Festival, a sprawling and entirely community-built exposition of the best of SL from the past two decades.
Here’a brief overall schedule of what’s going on (thanks to Dreamer Pixelmaid for the information):
- Early Shop and Hop Access (via the Second Life Birthday group): Wednesday, June 21st, 9:00 a.m. SLT
- Early SL20B Festival Access (via the Second Life Birthday group): Thursday, June 22nd, 9:00 a.m. SLT
- SL20B Official Opening: Thursday, June 22nd, 10:00 a.m. SLT
- Opening Speech: Thursday, June 22nd, noon SLT
- SL20B Music Festival: Thursday, June 22nd to Saturday, June 24th
- Live Stage Performances (Over 425 performers on four stages): Sunday, June 25th to Sunday, July 2nd
- All SL20B Regions Close: Tuesday, July 11th
According to the official blogpost, which just went up an hour ago:
Are you ready for this year’s SL20B Music Fest?
From June 22nd to the 24th, go on an interstellar journey through sound and emotions, as the crème de la crème of Second Life’s live musicians set the SL20B Mandala Stage ablaze with spellbinding performances!
In the middle of Music Fest will also be a movie premiere! “Made in SL: The Movie” is a special long-form documentary for Second Life’s 20th anniversary, produced by Draxtor Despres and premiering on Friday, June 23rd at 12pm PT at the SL20B Arboretum. Watch the trailer at this link.
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But wait, there’s more! Hold on to your (virtual) hats because the euphoria doesn’t wind down after Music Fest. The SL20B celebrations are set to reach stratospheric heights with a staggering 425+ performers ready to take over four majestic stages! This is not just a party; it’s a festival of boundless energy and musical marvels that promises to engulf your senses.
Keep your eyes on the Birthday Events Calendar to ensure you don’t miss a beat!
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You can also watch the Second Life Public Calendar for all Linden Lab events and in the next few days, we’ll debut a dedicated Destination Guide category with many event highlights. Look out for entries that will start appearing in the SL20B Destination Guide category later this week and keep an eye on this blog for more information about SL20B coming soon!
I will be keeping this blogpost updated as I receive ore information about SL20B, so stay tuned!
UPDATE 3:03 p.m.: Here’s some more information about the talk shoes and presentations that will be taking place during SL20B (and please note that Tuesday’s and Thursday’s shows are not live, but pre-recorded, so you really could catch those anytime):
Thursday, June 22nd at 12pm PT – Watch a Lab Gab Special Live at SL20B starting with Patch Linden’s opening speech. Watch it live on the Second Life YouTube channel or live at the SL20B Mandala Stage.
Monday, June 26th at 1:30pm PT – Watch a Lab Gab Special Live at SL20B with VP of Product Operations, Patch Linden. Patch works to bring the best of product and support based decisions on a daily operational basis to the virtual world platform for Second Life, while maintaining oversight on how all of the various teams within Linden Lab can best work together for the highest good of the Residents and the business. Watch it on the Second Life YouTube channel or at the SL20B Arboretum.
Tuesday, June 27th at 1:30pm PT – Watch a pre-recorded Lab Gab Special at SL20B with VP of Product Grumpity Linden, and VP of Engineering Mojo Linden. Grumpity heads up Second Life Product, where she has overseen a shift to growth, a stronger, more balanced economy, a movement towards better community cohesion, and an overall forward-looking approach. With over twenty years of experience in the games industry, Mojo is an expert at building teams and launching groundbreaking games across genres that push the limits of their respective platforms. Watch it on the Second Life YouTube channel or at the SL20B Arboretum.
Wednesday, June 28th at 1:30pm PT – Watch a Lab Gab Special Live at SL20B with the Founder of Second Life Philip Linden, and Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden. Philip rejoined Second Life in 2022, as Strategic Advisor, focused on helping to shape and build a better metaverse. Brad Oberwager has spent his entire career in technology and consumer focused companies as an entrepreneur and board member. Watch it on the Second Life YouTube channel or at the SL20B Arboretum.
Thursday, June 29th at 1:30pm PT – Watch a pre-recorded Lab Gab Special at SL20B with Chief Marketing Officer StyFy Linden and VP of Marketing Brett Linden. Together they focus on both the acquisition of new users and the retention of existing users for Second Life. Watch it on the Second Life YouTube channel or at the SL20B Arboretum.
Friday, June 30th at 1:30pm PT – Watch a Lab Gab Special Live at SL20B with the Moles! The Moles are builders, scripters, and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works. Watch it on the Second Life YouTube channel or at the SL20B Arboretum.
SL residents are invited to submit questions to these events, to be answered by the speakers—but you’d better hurry, you only have two days left! 😉 And I assume that the recordings of these talk shows and presentations will remain up on YouTube after the events, so if you can’t be there live, tune in later on, when you do have time.
See you there! I have been told that there will be some special announcements made!
