We, my Wife and I, attended our very first Fanfest back in 2015 and a decade later we will be attending our sixth Fanfest. It would be more but CCP skipped Fanfest during the World Tour year, and then again during the pandemic, and then again in 2024 to get it back on a early year schedule and back to Harpa. During those years we also attended Eve Vegas, Eve Amsterdam, Eve Toronto, and went on a cruise with other Eve players to Alaska. Which also doesn't mention the five player meet-ups we hosted ourselves in our own home. Or the trip to London during which we met up with Eve players. Which, if you had told me all of this back in 2015 I would have called you crazy. That sounds insane. It still sounds insane.
It is hard to remember but back in 2015 I had literally never met another Eve player in real life. At that point I had been playing Eve for seven years already, and other than my Son, had never met another person who played the game. Obviously we already had hundreds of friends from around the world, but until you fly to Reykjavik (the city Rixx Javix is named after) and land in the early morning hours in a dark and mysterious country after flying all night, get into the city and try to find your hotel, and half-asleep stumble into the the streets looking for food - only to hear someone yell (for the first time ever mind you) "Hey Rixx!!!" It isn't real, until it is very much real.
That first Fanfest was a whirlwind. It was packed full of activities and my head never stopped spinning. To support the art posters that CCP was selling we had a lot of extra activities to attend and participate in. I even gave a player presentation, attended a round-table, and signed posters on two days in the store. It was awesome, amazing, and a blur. And, to be honest, that blur hasn't really stopped since then.
A decade later. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this as the date approaches. But we are looking forward to attending once again and catching up with everyone. We're seasoned professionals now. Iceland is like a second home these days and we've traveled and explored so much of the island. We even went to New York last year to spend four days with a friend of ours from Iceland who doesn't even play Eve. He's been our tour guide and our friend for a decade now as well. Our roots in the country extend beyond just Eve.
We're looking forward to it. We can't afford it. Just like in 2015 when we were broke and penniless, we made it work somehow. A decade later and we're back to making it work somehow. But we both know we can't miss it. The board game is coming out in March and missing Fanfest after so much time is just not something we can do. I have no idea how we will make this happen. But we bought our tickets the first day they became available. And we got our plane tickets during the Black Friday sale. And we'll figure the rest out as we can.
And yes, it is still insane. Always has been.