The highest attendance of unique avatar data given to us from the last Fest was around 600. Since we opened the OSFest 2022 grid at the beginning of June 2022, there have been a record 763 unique avatars on the grid from 158 HG-enabled grids on the OSFest 2022 grid!
We still have 3 more days for the HUGE Merchant Sales event and the final weekend of 108 performances. Plus the grid is open for touring exhibits and continued shopping until July 31st so we expect the numbers to increase further.
Comments from participants include: "So much happening!", "OSFest should be longer to see everything and shop!", "Really pleased with the traffic to my exhibit/store and met some new people to network!", "No lag! Exhibits are fantastic!", "Having so much fun shopping!", ""OMG I haven't seen so many friends in years!", "No music events tonight?", "Servers seem to be well-managed.", "Thank you for standing with creators against copybotting.", "How can we donate to next year's funding?", and "What happens when the OSFest 2022 grid closes?"
To answer some of the questions: OSFest is an "Icarus" grid born anew each year but Laxton Consulting LLC and Infinite Metaverse Alliance LLC intend to again seed the funding and host next year for the community. The more sponsors we have next year, the more performer stipends we can offer and the more free parcels we can make available.
In response to several requests to be able to donate via Gloebits and Paypal for next year, we set out OSFest tip jars in the Event regions near each stage. In response to participants, we plan to spread out the schedule of performers to allow for breaks on the weekends and evening music events during the week. (We had them in this year but so many wanted to perform the breaks were filled.)
While our "man behind the curtain" has been testing the NGC curated OpenSimulator version server-side, several new developments happened in response to community needs: Custom Integrated Grid Map Teleport Boards, Custom Integrated OS-Aware Grid Events Calendar Boards, Custom Integrated Destination Guide, and a Custom Stream Service to automate simulcasting with the multi-stage format to other regions and parcels. As time allows, we will extend our streaming service to simulcast to all main parcels in all regions during music events as well as provide exhibitors, merchants, and sponsors optional simulcasting.
The OSFest Team is ecstatic that so many are having a positive user experience. We learned a lot hosting this "family reunion" in the Hyperverse this year. Next year we hope it will be even better as we will have more time to organize and put the infrastructure in place a few months early. We do plan to have a post-OSFest team meeting to review what went well and what can be improved next year. We will announce the time and date for all who want to attend.
One further note, we agree with a suggestion to offer hosting on the Metaverse Depot grid for any participants who would like their exhibits or stores from OSFest 2022 to be ported to our Virtual Worlds Fair project which will be accessible year round. We will be in touch! For anyone who may find the data useful, you can see how many unique avatars from around the Hyperverse sector of the Metaverse have been to OSFest 2022 so far in the sheet below.