What’s this all about, then?
I want to organize a Llamasoftie event this year, a callback to the old Retrovision meetups. Oxford isn't as practical a location for the event as it used to be, but Milton Keynes looks promising. Here's a description of the event I envision, as I described the plan for somebody who may or may not get involved. I share it here because, as ever, I would love your feedback - Are you interested? What would you like to see at this or any YakFest? Email me, I want to hear your thoughts:
"YakFest is a Llamasoft-specific fan event celebrating forty years of Jeff Minter's prodigious output in one place. This is a ticketed event hosted at Delta by Marriott in Milton Keynes, UK, with lots of hands-on gaming content during the day (on as much of the original hardware as possible), raffles with prizes and merchandise for sale, and an evening preview screening and musical VLM event in the evening.
Local Community focus: we are reaching out to Willen Hospice, a Milton Keynes charitable organization that has a diverse relationship with the community, including a storefront video game operation called The Hangout. Together with Willen Hospice we want to leverage the YakFest event to raise funds for this local charity, and to increase awareness & drive business to The Hangout.
With Bletchley Park in the community, we are reaching out to The National Museum of Computing to raise awareness of their upcoming programs and events to the YakFest computer & gaming audience.
We are also reaching out to The Pixel Bunker, the local video arcade museum that hosts over 120 original arcade machines, to sponsor Inspiration Alley, a section of YakFest where visitors can play some of the classic games that continue to inspire Jeff.
Other commercial partners:
I'm in talks with Steinar Lund to bring prints of his iconic Llamasoft art to sell at the event. And we are reaching out to other game-related vendors in the surrounding areas to present the YakFest audience with gaming-adjacent merch from local independent businesses. As well as The Hangout, we are reaching out to Close Encounters Comics in Bedford and Doorway to Dorkness in Doncaster."
...It's 100% tentative at this point, nothing is booked yet, no dates are set, but nevertheless it's something I want to make happen. Let's make it so.