The Midsummer Fashion Splash-On
Come one, come all! Come at once, or not at all! Tis time, hear my call! For the Midsummer International Fashion Parade and Ball!The Midsummer Fashion Splash-On is a staple summer event in Soniuch Zan, starting eight days prior to the summer solstice and ending at lunch of the following day. It is a celebration of fashion, theatre, artwork, and colour, and sweeps across the entirety of the gnomish nation in a fever-dream of delights. Each day contains a number of events designed for audience participation alongside showcases of creative works, interactive exhibits, and workshops. Judges for the varying events - such as the themed fashion walks or the Midsummer International Fashion Parade and Ball that takes place on the final day - keep track of particularly standout creatives, and score them according to an increasingly obscure list of criteria. Those who put on particularly entertaining showings throughout the event - particularly those involved in the fashion industry, due to the event's name and sponsors - are welcomed into the highest echelons of Midsummer Fashion Nobility. The final day is best known of all for the explosions of colour that erupt. It is when, colours in hand, visitors and citizenry alike are encouraged to spread as much colour and life throughout the nation as possible, decorating it in a chaotic mess of rainbows and lights - and the stories that emerge from this chaos are, in a word, legendary.
I met my adventuring group there, after I saw them punting their sorcerer and they saw me riding the firesnake!
Summer Fun by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Days of Colour
The first and foremost thing that visitors to anywhere in Soniuch Zan during the Splash-On is the way colour suddenly drenches everything. Over the course of the eight days, the nation is transformed with a new colour each day. Day one always begins with a sheet of white across everything, setting the canvas for what is to come, and the remaining seven days each add a new colour to the palette. By the time of the solstice, the whole country glitters and shines with bright, fantastical colours. The actual colours are drawn a year in advance, giving creatives a chance to prepare for the event, and vary slightly each year. The events, too, are themed around the colours of each day. The schedule for the year 5626 is presented below.
White by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Day One: White
Welcome one and all to the Midsummer Fashion Splash-On! Today's events include:
The Blank Slate Opening Ceremony
As usual, we open with a parade of white! Watch the Kings, Queens, and Monarchs of previous years lead countless floats of shimmering white across the country as they open the celebrations!The White Walk
Following up the opening ceremony, join us in the capital to watch stunning sculptural couture and intricate modern fashion waltz down the runway on some of the world's most star-studded models!The Bleaching Basin
Not scared of facing your own mortality? Jump in the bleaching basin, and be stained entirely white for the week! Warning: effects on clothes may be permanent!Day Two: Gold
In day two, we embrace the sun's golden light!
Hoard Diving
Not feeling gold enough? Dive into our golden swimming pools! Gain some glitter to your skin and hunt for the dragon's hoard in the waters!Gilded Gathering
Hide behind gleaming gold masks and join us in palaces throughout the nation for a glittering masquerade ball!Shining Lights
Take your place as part of a shining mirror puzzle! Join hundreds of others in bouncing lights around an audience of thousands to light beacons throughout the country - land AND sky!
Gold by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Silver by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Day Three: Silver
First gold, and now silver - today's a day of metallics!
Metalsmithing Workshops
Make your own finery! Guest blacksmiths all the way from Gildómar gather to compete for the title of Goldsmith of the Year, and you can join in the fun with our workshops too!Shimmering Science
Want to get your silver fix on? Head down and get your clothes silver-plated with the latest tech, then have them augmented with special light-up materials! Stand out in the crowd with your own silver glow!Moondance
Stay until midnight, and watch the entire nation shimmer-shimmy in the silver light of our beloved moon!Day Four: Green
We're heading straight for the forests! Druids, welcome!
Friendly Fashion
Learn about weaving techniques, plant growth enchantments, sustainable fabrics,Flower Funtimes
The fey have arrived, and everything's budding! Watch stellar fey performances and transformations, and come away with your own special flower crown - for once, no strings attached!Greener Grasses
Artists have transformed swathes of the countryside into calming fey-inspired groves with hints of other planes in them! Find the hidden nymphs in them to be flown through these sweeping vistas!
Green by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Blue by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Day Five: Blue
It's time to dive straight into the Luari!
Synchronised Swim
What's a normal synchronised swimming performance when you could join in one of thousands? Watch the professionals do their stuff, then fall under an enchantment and let them command you to do the same!Boats! Boats! Boats!
Boats in the seas! Boats on the land! Boats in the skies! Join fine dining experiences in nautical settings, go for a quick jaunt across the blue skies, and watch the dragonboat races - judged by real dragons!Surf's Up!
Tired of admiring the beautiful sculptures and animated creations from a distance? Get up close and personal with the water tours! Surf down behemoth creations, slide through pillars of light, and get yourself flung into the sea by a giant freakin' robot!Day Six: Red
And lo, on the dawn of the sixth day, were the skies painted scarlet!
Hellsmaw
Even the lower planes need love too! Artists come together to create rending flames and burning red showers to remind us all why we like to be good people!Spicefest
Hot hot hot! Cuisine just got a lot hotter - head to the spiceways for a crazy crimson cuisine celebration! Try and take the 9 Hells Spice Challenge if you dare!Heavensfall
Relive the dark depths of our past and watch meteors rain down on the world as Terra Arcana falls - amongst other, less terrifying experiences in the Night of a Thousand Illusions! Now with added sensory input!
ed by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Yellow by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Day Seven: Yellow
And with hell comes heaven, resplendent in yellow!
Stairway to Heaven
Meander up a bright yellow glass staircase up into the skies to the Skyhigh Theatre, where angels assist us brightly-clad mortals in performing plays of the higher plane's greatest feats!Enter Sandman
Know what's better than yellow glass? Yellow sand! Jump back to the beaches for sand sculpting, hot sand racing, and all kinds of sand-based activities! Be warned: it's coarse, and it gets everywhere!Sunny Side Up
What an eggcellent time for a fashion challenge! Join industry experts in a frantic race to create the best egg-themed costumes against the clock, then take your place in a runway show afterwards!Day Eight: Rainbow!
Ah, the final day! Here, we return to white.. but only for a moment. Grab the colours you've collected over the days, and get ready for the big fight!
The Fashion Splash-on
Once again, we see the White Walk, now joined by all of the stars from throughout the week. But this time, it's with a twist - this time, it's up to us, the audience, to colour them in! Bombard them with colour and let the very sky itself be turned rainbow!The Rainbow Race
The monarchs of our fashion court have lost... something! When the race is announced, it'll be up to everyone present to find the lost items before anyone else can! The winner receives a seat in the fashion monarchy!Pot of Gold
We celebrate the dawn of a series of new reigning monarchs across the arts, as awards for competitions and showings throughout the week are handed out! Once it ends - it's time to party all night!
Rainbow by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull
Oh my gosh, all the activities sound like so much fun. Colours!!!