riverviewlogs | 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

[ To Maia, the hot tubs are less fantastical than the rest of the attractions at the water park. As far as he can tell, there are little more than very large, shared bathtubs. None of the fancy machinery involved in the slides, and wave pool, and other such things.

Still, as it grows later in the evening, he finds himself shivering, and decides to try one. They are a popular destination, with many full of half a dozen people, laughing and chatting together, lively, already friends and looking like outsiders are not welcome. One, however, only has a single occupant. Maia makes his way to it, hesitating by the steps.

He is hoping to make eye contact with Hawke and then ask if she minds him sharing the hot tub with her. But her eyes are closed, and she appears not in a hurry to open them. Feeling awkward, half thinking he should just go home, Maia clears his throat. He does it rather louder than he meant to, and his ears dip with embarrassment. ]

Ah- apologies. I... was just wondering if- you would mind terribly if I...?

[It's hard to tell over the din of the water jets, but Hawke's relatively sure she hears someone approach. But if they want to chat, they will, so she keeps her eyes shut. Given the pause that follows, she half expected them to have left without her having heard.

But then someone speaks, and she's bidden to open her eyes. There stands a stranger, seemingly unsure and stammering out his question. And not even fully. She cocks a brow; of course she knows what he's trying to ask, but, well... Hawke can be a jerk sometimes.]

Mind if you...? Belch? Do a belly flop? Break out into a rousing rendition of a tavern ditty?

[ Maia's ears lower, half-annoyance, half-embarrassment. He's not accustomed to good-natured teasing, and doesn't know how to react to it. Her words don't have the venom of actual insult - besides, she doesn't even know him, why would she bear him any actual malice? - and yet there's no mistaking the slight hostility.

Caught off-guard, he switches back to the formal first; he's not going to force himself to ]

...we had intended to ask if we might join you, but now we can tell that must not be the custom.

[ It would probably be a better idea to just turn around and find another place, but Maia has a streak of stubbornness in him. This tub does not belong to the woman, after all. It would be unfair for her to hog one all to herself, and chase off anyone else with sharp humor. So Maia steps into the hot tub, defiantly, and sits himself down in the hot water, opposite the stranger.

Then, before the silence becomes awkward, with a little sarcasm: ]

We do not know any tavern ditties.

All of you should learn one. It's good for the soul.

[Hawke simply smirks a bit as he steps in, not minding at all. Nope, she doesn't own it and she certainly isn't about to prevent him from coming in. She just finds it funny how seemingly bashful he was being about the whole thing. The sarcasm and bite to his tone aren't lost on her, but she just becomes more amused than anything.]

If it were reserved for someone else, I'd have said something. Otherwise these are public and I can't exactly stop you from coming in. Well, I could, but I'd have no right.

[ Maia only gets more tense, at the little barb over his speech. He simmers, angrily thinking that it's not his fault the people here are all so informal with one another, and can't seem to understand the difference between formal and informal pronouns, as if they were children. But he is used to these little flares of temper, and thinks a moment later that, in truth, perhaps she meant the joke as a friendly one.

He shuts his eyes, trying to focus on the enjoyable heat of the water, to set aside his embarrassment and annoyance. Perhaps if he just sat long enough, she would leave, and he could enjoy the hot tub alone.

That only lasts a few moment, before the settles down and thinks that he is, perhaps, acting a bit childish. Opening his eyes once more, he says, clearly speaking with care: ]

Truth is, I have never been to a tavern. Is singing very common?

[It wouldn't be the first time someone lost their temper over her humor. She has lots of reasons for it, but one of those reasons is because the way people react to it tells her a lot. One eye trained on him still, Relm watches quietly. He tenses, and she wonders if he'll snap at her. Hardly fun, but also hardly new. Though she's mildly surprised to hear nothing of the sort. Rather, he simply admits to his lack of tavern going experience.]

You're missing out. Though it really depends on the tavern and the mood of its patrons. The ones on the coast in my experience seem to boast of more singing. The sailors like to, and they like to congregate in the taverns. If there's a holiday or some special occasion, you'll definitely hear more of it.

monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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