Well everyone, it’s been an unforgettable 5 years, but the time has come for Kazamatsuri to close its doors on the 1st of December.
This hasn’t been a decision any of us have taken lightly, but it’s something we’ve all come to realise in our own time. Activity on Kazamatsuri has plummeted, many of our core staff are occupied by full-time jobs and their loved ones, and we no longer have enough patron donations to keep the site running. We’ve decided it’s time to close this chapter on our lives, and let the Kazamatsuri community end gracefully.
What this means is that the Kazamatsuri forum will be suspended, the Kazamatsuri blog and Social Media will be closed, and the Discord will be closing its doors to future members. The current plan is to archive Kazamatsuri and Rokkenjima in a read-only format for people to browse into the future, and thanks to the efforts of Embr we have a prototype of that already working that you can check out here. We’ll be keeping the Patreon up to cover these costs, as well as one other thing I’ll mention soon.
Rest assured that the Planetarian Bookclub Reboot Podcast has been recorded and will be uploaded soon. I apologise for the excessive delays, but I still intend to have these uploaded before Kazamatsuri closes. However, the future bookclubs we originally planned, like the LLLS/Hikikomori Songs and Rewrite Bookclubs, will not be happening. Maybe at some point in the future someone on Twitter will inherit the torch with a similar event, but that’s for the future to decide.
As for The Key20th International Fan Book, Kyuketsukimiyu and I are committed to seeing it finished, even if it’s after Kazamatsuri has closed its doors. There are only 11 Fanart bounties left to claim, so get in quick if you want to earn some Dango Tickets! I plan on continuing to honor people’s Dango Tickets into the future, so don’t feel pressured to spend them soon. I still have lots of CLANNAD goods to give away! Admittedly, shipping costs a lot of money, and since we’re about to run out, I’m planning on repurposing the Kazamatsuri Patreon to primarily fund Key20th moving forward. So if you aren’t able to produce fan works and still want to contribute, that’s another way you can help us reach the finish line. Not much further now!
And lastly, starting 23 UTC Friday the 29th of November and going late into the night, we’re closing out Kazamatsuri with a bang, with a Graduation Party on Discord! Let’s meet up once more and share all our fondest memories of Kazamatsuri over games and karaoke. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, and I hope lots of people can make it, even those who don’t visit Kazamatsuri anymore. We’ve also opened an Open Letters to Kazamatsuri topic, where everyone can leave messages to Kazamatsuri and future readers, to reminisce and share what Kazamatsuri means to them. I’ll definitely have a few words to share myself. If you have more ideas for how to celebrate, please post them in the discussion below! This is our final gig, so I want everyone to have some input of what we can do to ring out one more month of Kazamatsuri.
I’m sure this news is going to come as a shock to some, and I won’t expect everyone to understand immediately. For those who grew attached to this community even a fraction as much as I did, I’m sure the feelings of loss will sting. Me and the other mods are happy to chat and answer any questions you have about the process. But after everyone has processed the news, I hope that you all return with a smile, ready to celebrate all the good Kazamatsuri has done for our small corner of the internet over the past five years. Don’t be sad that it’s ending, be happy that it happened. Let’s all join hands in reminiscence and celebration as we walk towards our graduation together, to close out this chapter of our lives as we step forward into greater things.
Once more, thank you to everyone who made Kazamatsuri the life-changing experience it was for me and so many others.
Kazamatsuri is eternal.
