Welcome to the 2nd Annual FanstRAvaganzaaaaaa!!!

 

*FanstRAvaganza Day 1*

Hi.  I'm Nat and I'll be your
hostess in this particular corner of the
FanstRAvaganza party this week.

Welcome, welcome!

"What is Fanstrav-a-ma-call-it?"
you might ask.

Said in my fake posh British accent:

The Richard Armitage Fanstravaganza

(the full and proper name, which has since been abbreviated)

is an international, multi-blog, week-long event (usually held in March)

which celebrates Richard Armitage and his fans.

Get it?  FANstRAvaganza. :)

Now let's "kick" things off with a little background info...

The History of the FanstRAvaganza:

Long ago...

in the year 2010...

there was a Richard Armitage admirer from Italy 

named Maria Grazia.
(You may know her from THIS lovely blog.)

She came up with the brilliant idea of having an "RA gala"

which would involve several bloggers and feature polls

about Armitage-related topics.

MG suggested the idea to

Mulubinba of An RA Viewer's Perspective 

and Nat of The Richard Armitage Fan Blog,

who thought it was a great idea. 

With Mulubinba's support and advice,

Nat rounded up a few other bloggers to join the group.

At first, this gala was on the path of being an award ceremony of sorts

(like the RA Oscars or something) featuring many poll categories such as:

BEST RA FANFIC, BEST RA FORUM, BEST RA WEBSITE, BEST FAN VID, etc.

And the award for BEST HUNK EVER goes to... me!

After carefully compiling a list of nominations and dividing topics,

the participating bloggers realized that these poll questions could actually cause
 unwanted competition and hurt feelings amongst the RA fan community, which
was a risk they didn't want to take.  (This was meant to be fun!)

The original group of bloggers reformatted their plan,

deciding to feature polls about Richard Armitage's work instead.

Ragtag suggested that they also showcase fans and their creations throughout the week.

While brainstorming what to call the event,  Servetus at Me + Richard (who was brand new
to blogging at the time) suggested the ingenious  title of "Fanstravaganza".  (Good thing she
was around... Nat had her heart set on "The RA Awards of Awesomeness!!!"
or something of that cheesy nature when it was an award event.)

New topics were chosen, a logo was created,

Fanstravaganza 2010

and the first-ever FanstRAvaganza was held

with great success.  (Meaning much participation, many laughs,

new friends made, and new blogs discovered.)

Last year's festivities and links- HERE.

This year brings more than twice as many participating bloggers with

new topics, polls and fan highlights.  Some blogs may be new to you,

so be sure to "blog hop" and participate as much as possible.

Okay, I'll stop writing in 3rd person now. :)

I had a hard time deciding on a topic this year...
but since one of my favorite things about being an RA
fan is other RA fans, I decided to focus on Armitage admirers
in general.  So stay tuned this week!  I'll be featuring fan spotlights,
RA character fan letters, a game, and a certain stick figure
may be making an appearance. :)

Other participating blogs for 2011:
Me + Richard
An RA Viewer's Perspective
The Spooks Fan Blog
The Squeee!
Avalon's Blog
Phylly's Faves
RA Frenzy
The Quill Tip

CDoart
Nevermind, Mr. Armitage
Mesmered's Blog
White Rose Writing
Confessions of a Watcher
Richard Armitage Vids & Graphics

All of the above links are also included in
my "enjoyable blogs" list on the sidebar and will
be marked with ** by their names this week.
(I like the blog list feature because it tells me when someone has posted
something and doesn't close this screen when I click on a link.)

We hope you enjoy the festivities.

Let the fun begin!