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

[ Jyushimatsu nods firmly, fixing his gaze towards the flashy lights in front of him. ]

Never went with softball before. I've always been a hardcore baseball fan myself, but maybe I can learn something new! And it'll be super fun for sure if everyone else is enjoying themselves, not just me!

[ He's aware on a degree that he tends to be more... excited about everything than the people around him, and hopefully things will be different by the time they all get to play together. ]

They're actually really similar. Just a bigger ball and a little bit of a different pitching style in order to get the same sort of speeds and stuff that you'd actually get if you were using the smaller ball. I played first base when I was in high school, actually.

[Of course, Alex had dropped it when she'd gone to college in favor of working on the college radio station and newspaper. Which she'd forever be grateful for, because it'd led her to Nic who had led her to here, honestly. So that was that. But she'd also done the whole thing with Pacific Northwest Stories, the whole softball league thing so she wasn't totally out of practice, thankfully.]

I'm sure you'll get the hang of it really easily honestly!

Whoa, you did? That explains your eagerness to play!

[ Jyushimatsu turns to her and smiles widely, happy with the information. He frankly didn't think softball would be popular to anyone here. Without Wally coming up with the whole idea, Jyushimatsu would have been oblivious to it as well. Maybe he really should give it a chance. Alex's enthusiasm is inspirational to say the least. ]

If it's anything like baseball, then yeah! It's only a matter to make things... stick with me, haha!

[ Meaning he might forget things as easily as he can learn them. ]

Yeah, I did! It was pretty fun too. My Dad coached us, actually!

[Which explained why Alex was on the team, honestly, when her pursuits tended to run more towards the school paper rather than anything else. But Alex was also a Daddy's girl, so she never wanted to let him down. So, there was still enthusasim there, honestly.]

Well, if you've already got the basics for baseball? You're probably better off than a lot of people. And hey, don't worry about it, if you need a memory jog? I'll be glad to be there to help you.

[ What a lucky girl. Jyushimatsu's sports experience is self-taught since his father was always out for work. His childhood was not sad by any means but he never had a chance to play a lot of baseball with his family. That One Tournament that ended in them dying in space doesn't count. ]

I'll count on you then! My half-a-brain will scatter less if there's someone like you supporting it!

[ That sounds oddly self-depreciating, but it's just that he knows he's not the brightest tool in the shed. ]

[That makes Alex laugh, it's not a mean laugh by any stretch of the imagination, but she still laughs anyway before she gives him a broad grin and a little nod. Honestly, Alex is pretty glad that the weirdness in her life didn't hit until she was far older than he was. Even of she wouldn't exactly give up any of the weirdness for anything. Too much goodness had come with it for that. <'/small>]

Okay, how about this: I'll definitely do my best to keep you on the straight and narrow when it comes to softball.

[But there's a little bit of wiggle room for her, because sometimes her best isn't exactly enough when it all comes down to it honestly. And she's aware of it.]

[ With all the help he needs to understand softball, Alex is like a blessing to him and it makes him happy to know he'll get some kind of guidance. He nods firmly, clenching a fist with determination. ]

Alright! Let's work together and make something worthwhile out of this!

[ EXCITEMENT. Great things will happen with hard work, right? ]

[His enthusiasm is contagious, and it makes Alex grin broadly at him, she can't help it in the slightest. Letting out a little laugh, she just nodded.]

Definitely! We'll get it all worked out., I'm sure. Have you thought at all about uniforms or whatever?

[ Ah...! Uniforms. Uh. Yeah. He never let that cross his mind.

There's a sheepish smile as he rubs the back of his head, averting her gaze. ]

Hahaha! I've got nothing set in stone about that either! Not sure who I could ask to make those uniforms in the first place!

[Hmm. Well, this might be more work than Alex was bargaining for, but hell, she's committed now.]

Can always ask the network? I'm sure someone would know someone who does it already or who could use the work or whatever?

I'll definitely think about it! We can't go on without uniforms! That's right!

[ How could he forget something so basic, so essential? He huffs. ]

And I guess every person's got different sizes so there's also that to work with buuut I suppose it's the issue of whoever wants to tailor them for us!

We could always just go with t-shirts with our logo on them and hats. That's what we did at PNWS for our team!

[tailoring sounds too fancy.]

Sometimes keeping it simple works best. And is definitely cheaper too.

[ He snaps his fingers! ]

We can go that route! I guess it's cheaper and they'll just have to get the logo done! And we'll have to think of a logo in the first place, but there's time! There's lots of time!

[ They're here to watch the fireworks after all, but he's so fired up now he can't stop vibrating on the spot. ]

We definitely do have loads of time! No need to rush into everything! Besides, we need to know sizes and people's abilities and whatever before we start doing this! I think we should open it to whoever wants to do it, don't you?

Of course of course! It can aaaaall be done in due time!

[ He can't think too much. He can only spark the interest and spread the message, but for technical shit he needs help. And he's thankful to Alex for being his brains in a way. ]

With that decided, let's watch more fireworks before it's over!

monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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