riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: the river festival
when: the month of august
where: anywhere around the city
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

river festival

In the days leading up to August 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: The River Festival. This holiday is in celebration of the river and the life that it gives to the city, as well as the heat of summer and forming bonds with friends, family, and romantic partners. The celebrations are marked by a community-wide cleanup of the docks and beaches along the river - particularly important considering the recent flooding that's left the banks of the river littered with debris - as well as beachfront cookouts and parties (both private and city sponsored) and beach sports tournaments happening on either open stretches of beach or in special clothing-optional beaches, all capped off with fireworks displays each weekend in August.

a celebration of the river and togetherness

Following the hedonism of Carnivale, it's time for something a little more low-key and relaxing. The River Festival happens every year in August, and is geared toward community building through cleaning up the beaches and docks along the river and then using all that freshly cleaned beach to gather on. During the month of August, there are various lightly-themed government-sponsored beach cookouts and parties geared toward family, romantic dates, or casual all-ages get-togethers for meeting new friends; there are also a few more racy parties at clothing-optional beaches around the city. Many private residents also take this time to gather together friends and family, and have cookouts on the beach with all the typical trappings of the beach barbecue. There are also various casual sports tournaments sponsored by community centers, gyms, and sports teams in the city, featuring prizes ranging from notoriety to sports equipment to big bucks. Every weekend, there are beautiful fireworks displays and free concerts. This year, the River Festival has been chosen for the unveiling of a new water park in the City, with free or heavily discounted tickets during August!

i. cleaning up

The holiday starts off on a note that is just a bit more sombre than the rest of the season, with the cleanup efforts following the recent flooding blending into the usual tradition of cleaning up beaches and docks along the river. The cleanup is a group effort, with every citizen who is physically able pitching in to comb the beaches, where they pick up fallen tree limbs, garbage, and anything else that's accumulated during the winter and spring, and then raking the beaches to make them clean and ready to use. The cleanup of the docks is similar, with residents sweeping and hosing them down where necessary. This year, there are a lot of repairs to be made to beachfront structures that might've been damaged by flooding and the traffic along the riverbanks from the heroes that participated in the rescue of cult hostages, so if anyone has some carpentry or building skills, those would definitely come in handy.

This is meant to be a community building effort, so many businesses in the area, more well-to-do private citizens, and the government have pitched in funding to provide lunches, cold drinks, coffee or tea, and snacks to anyone who's helping out with the cleanup efforts. All in all, the cleanup has a very friendly, welcoming vibe.

ii. beach activities

The main traditions of the River Festival involve cookouts and beach parties. Each weekend in August, the government as well as various corporations and businesses in the city, will be providing funds for large beach gatherings. On these days, there will be booths set up offering wares and freebies from various businesses around the city that have helped fund the party, large swaths of cleared beach where residents can don a swimsuit and catch some rays or swim in the river, massive barbecue setups to provide partygoers with all the standard barbecue fare, beach sports tournaments, dancing and musical performances, and fireworks displays (see prompts below).

The holiday isn't just about these big parties, though - many residents arrange their own barbecues, cookouts, beach camping trips, beach bonfires, and other riverside gatherings and outings. Many riverfront businesses offer discounts on services such as canoe or kayak rentals to go out paddling on the river, jetski or motorboat rentals for tubing, wakeboarding, or waterskiing, or mounts to take romantic rides in the surf. Additionally, there is an adults-only section of the beach where any of these activities can be done in the nude in a clothing-optional setting, including the big city-sponsored parties.

If your character is good at playing a particular sport that could, conceivably, be played on a beach, chances are that during the month of August, a tournament will be set up for them to participate in. The tournaments are pretty standard, generally sponsored by community centers, sports clubs and teams, gyms, and other organizations and businesses in the city, with various levels of specialization, and levels of skill or competitiveness. The prizes also vary, with everything from plain old bragging rights to sports equipment or passes to gyms and community centers, to large lump sums of cash money. Definitely worth it, for characters with a love for sport. Oh, and a lot of these tournaments are happening on the adults-only clothing-optional beaches, for those grown-up sports fans who like a bit of an extra challenge.

iii. fireworks and music

Each weekend throughout the month of August, there will be evening performances all along the beach. Not as extensive as the musical performances during Carnivale, the performances are geared more toward dancing than true concerts, with areas roped off on both on the regular and adults-only clothing-optional beaches for dancing and mingling (acts will switch off between the two areas so both areas get both performances).

Player-characters who are musical artists, DJs, or otherwise perform are free to set up shop around this party and panhandle or put on free performances for publicity.

After the sun goes down, boats will head out into the water carrying a variety of fireworks, and there will be a beautiful display of exploding color in the sky for residents to watch and enjoy. The fireworks are highly advanced, incorporating old-fashioned gunpowder as well as modern technology that result in really beautiful displays that can take the breath away!

iv. waterpark

This year, there's an extra little bit of fun being thrown into the River Festival - the grand opening of a new waterpark! It's quite the park, set near the river with a scenic view, and featuring all sorts of amazing rides, from waterslides that are catered to all ages and levels of thrill seeking, tube rides that are almost like a rollercoaster on water, a pool where customers can faux-surf, funnel rides, side-by-side racing slides, a lazy river, and almost anything else you can imagine. Besides the rides, there are also a wide variety of swimming pools for kids and adults - wave pools, lap pools, splash pools - and an equally wide variety of hot tubs featuring various minerals (and some aromatherapy) for relaxing, invigoration, and other effects.

Some of the hot tubs are in a clothing-optional adult area, where there are some normal pools and some clearly-labelled pools contain elements that increase arousal or desire, or simply affection to encourage some closer bonding!

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up one of the mod-posted prompts for each Communal Floor. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during the River Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: credit unknown; image ii: Albert Ramon Puig; image iii: Claudio Pilia; image iv: Alan Philips

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Mhm! He nods in understanding. ]

Wet sand is kinda dark and easy to wipe so details do get lost, but it's impressive that you can work with such a difficult material! The best I can do is make castles out of buckets!

Oh, I can see that. The buckets would give the sand its shape. If you have a bucket, we can try that instead.

No, no! I wanna see an artist at work now! Keep sculpting away, I'll be watching and making sure no one destroys your thing!

[ He wildly gestures towards the birdie. ]

All right. Just remember I haven't tried sculpting before.

[And sand is very difficult to work with. He shapes the wet sand again, liking the way it feels between his fingers. This time it looks like he's making a smaller version of the Vitruvian man, except it's an android]

You haven't? Do you just paint then?

[ He keeps watching, while trying to tell what sort of thing Markus is shaping up. ]

So far. I'm experimenting, seeing what I like doing best.

[He finishes, looking at the finished product happily, then down at his sandy fingers]

It's much messier than painting.

... Ooooh, doesn't look bad at all!

[ He claps his hands, impressed. Although he's the only guy doing so, his clapping is pretty loud. ]

You should see how messy it is with clay! Then your hands would be full of mud-like stuff!

[He doesn't mind the loud clapping at all, and smiles to show this] I know. Maybe I can work with clay next so I can compare the two.

Well, clay is technically better since it holds up and is easier to work with. I'm curious about what masterpieces you can pull off! It's okay if you can't do a lot with sand, usually pros take a long time to make decent sculptures and you're already quite good at it!

There are professional sand sculptors? I haven't heard of that before.

They definitely exist! There are contests all about making the most complex sculptures! Sure it's super hard since sand can crumble anytime, but isn't that awesome?

It would certainly make building something more challenging, and winning the contest more satisfying. I wonder if they have any contests like that here?

If there aren't, they totally have to! I'm expecting it to happen next year if they can't pull something together now!

[ He huffs. There's so much to do here and yet there's no contest about SAND CASTLES? ]

If worse comes to worst I might host one myself! Don't really know what sort of prizes would attract people, so... next year. [ He deflates. ]

[He looks amused] I don't know you very well, but you do seem like the right person for that sort of thing. You're very spirited.

[ Oh no, he's weak to praise... ]

Ehh? You think I can pull that off? That might be a lot of responsibility, you know!

It might, but if it's something you want to do, you should try it. People have been encouraging me to work toward things I enjoy, so I'm doing the same for you.

Eh... hmmm!

[ He puts both hands over his mouth, conflicted. ]

I'll think about it! If nothing weird like mass kidnappings or comas happens this month I might consider it!

I heard about that. It didn't sound like anyone was seriously hurt, though.

... Haha, I wouldn't say that! Even though everyone turned out alive, a lot of us turned up hurt inside and outside! I got a load of head injuries fighting to save my brothers' asses, and my brothers got very traumatized!

[ His tone may be cheery, but the tension in his face shows anything but joy. ]

Oh. [He can't think of what else to say in response to that]

Then I hope things stay calm enough for everyone to recover.

It's been a couple months now so I'm hoping those stupid cultists lay off for a long time! We practically destroyed them!

[ He gives a chuckle, reeling the mood in a lighter direction. ]

So all you have to worry about this month is a bad sunburn. [Look at him making jokes]

[ Awww, okay, that was a cute attempt and he giggles because anything can make him laugh. ]

If the sun wants to burn me, I'll just have to run fast so it won't catch up to me!

[Look at them both making jokes. Markus smiles appreciatively]

What does a sunburn feel like?

Oh, it's awful! Like you're being burned by fire but there are no flames, or you're blushing all over but it's one hundred thousands times worse and it happens all over your body!

...

Maybe I sound overdramatic but some of my brothers do seem like they're close to dying when they get sunburnt! Me? I got used to it even though it's super annoying!

[ He laughs. ]

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