The Christmas Festival
The Christmas Festival was a formerly annual event that took place in Rotherhythe for both a 2022 and 2023 version. While a 2024 rendition of the festival had entered a planning stage in January 2023, it was decided that in light of the hiatus of Mattesco and the ensuing retirement of Roth as a festival community that the event would not be held.
Future
The Future of these events remains uncertain, dependent on the willpower of organisers as well as the activity slump faced by the server at this time.
It isn't impossible, but it remains improbable.
Past events
Christmas Festival 2022
The Christmas Festival 2022 was hosted in Rotherhythe Keep's courtyard. Transforming the otherwise clear space into a winter wonderland, making utmost use of the grounds to offer a wide variety of options for market owners and visitors to enjoy, the event was hosted principly by Mattesco and backed by TheSecondLord.
Preparation
Rotherhythe's Christmas Festival was announced in October 2022 and preparation for the courtyard hub began in November. Construction on the site was completed on November 20th. A Discord thread was opened to prepare for players moving in to construct stalls and other items.
During the event
The Christmas festival saw huge foot traffic throughout December, seeing a rise in journeys to and from Rotherhythe. Due in large part to the magnitude of community offerings and new market stalls popping up. The first Public Embassies were built during the event, and Rotherhythe hosted a Christmas Dinner and two hockey events. Multiple raffles were also held by community market owners. Huwulling hosted a fashion show in mid-December.
Christmas Festival 2023 - In aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital
The 2023 Christmas Festival began on November 25th 2023, multiple events including a Winter Olympic Games, Ice Hockey tournament and Pub Quiz took place with the 2nd edition of IBC's Christmas Calendar taking residence in a local facility.
Fundraiser
For the first time on UV, the event hosted itself as a fundraiser, funded in part through donations sent via QR Code map arts located around the festival site, as well as a program for Diamond donations to be matched and sent off to the charity.
Market
The Community market took a step forward in 2023, now being hosted in a newly built village of Coppergate Valley, specifically designed to incorporate shops into the structures before their planned transitions into permanent buildings.
Stalls
"Jamie's Saddles" - By Reno - Was a store selling saddles along the north bank of the west canal.
"Burgundy Bakery" - By Mr._Byzantine - Was a bakery selling alcoholic drinks as well as other amenities and baked goods.
"Milford Boozy Bookstore - By Crashomon - Was a bookstore and bar combination.
"Santa's Sip Shop" - By Lez - Was the home of the annual advent calendar as well as a shop for alcoholic drinks from IBC. This store featured party boxes for sale to celebrate the occassion as well as a micro book club and an observatory featuring a bar.
"The Lazy Cult" - By Mr_Sun15 - Was a barge located on the river in Coppergate Valley central. The barge was due to be home to a cult located underneath.
"The 5-7-5 - By Pintsizedrogue - Was a boat selling Haiku commissions located next to the Brasshelm Pub
Planned Stalls
The "PPPBS" - By Reno and Bliss - Was a planned sequel to the harvest festivals iconic PPP Cafe, the store was due to be both a book shop and a cafe, however the design was never finished.
Events
The original scale of the festival planned for there to be two events each weekend, one for a time structure called "Prime Time" and another called "Silent Nights" aimed at bridging the timezone gap.
Due to ongoing server conflict at the time, the vast majority of these were cut down to backlash for the over-population of events in the month as well as other, undisclosed issues.
Despite this, however, a few of the planned events did manage to go ahead.
Ice Hockey - The Winter Olympics
For an event titled "The Winter Olympic Games" Ice Hockey made its grand return, it was the final tournament overseen by a Roth representative, taking place on December 16th 2023 along with the other events.
The winner was Kowcio.
Boat Grand Prix - The Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympics featured a small ice boat racing event taking place along the canals of Rotherhythe up to the Coppergate Bridge and back again.
Kit PvP - The Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympics rounded out with Kit PvP, by TheSecondLord. Featuring multiple kits to choose from in a custom pvp arena.
Pub Quiz - Festive Edition
The Brasshelm Pub posted a Pub Quiz themed around Christmas icons, history and Culture.
Pub Quiz - UltraVanilla
Additionally, a pub quiz themed around UV History was hosted.
Christmas Skin Competition
A Christmas Skin competition was hosted by Huwu.
Planned Events
Only one Christmas Festival event has ever been cancelled, being the 2024 rendition.
Christmas Festival 2024 - Aurora Borealis
Very little planning got done before the event had to be scrapped. But what follows is a short definition of the plan.
The concept
The plan originally devised at the end of the 2023 rendition was that 2024 was going to be a mixed event celebrating the servers stores by having miniature versions of Iconic shops from both the Aurora and Borealis sections be built within the Coppergate Valley with design motifes from their respective stores take over the facades of each building.
The plan would have seen store owners from both invited to bring their creations to life or have Rotherhythe make a parody of each inactive / no longer stocked shop where it would not be affecting the store owners revenue.
Cancellation
At the turn of 2024 Mattesco had left UV, and the village's new role of being a RolePlay community had fallen apart due in part to the server's ongoing foybles and a lack of planning put in toward the concept prior to the departure. Along with this it was decided no new events would be staged in Rotherhythe unless exceptional like Olympics V.