Bandom Summer Blowout

Bandom Summer Blowout is a Bandom challenge that was created in response to new rules at Bandom Big Bang banning certain content.
The challenge includes bands related to Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Panic! at the Disco, plus music video characters and the Killjoys comics.
==Rules==
The challenge allows for collaboration between fanfic writers and other fan creators similar to a big bang challenge, but also allows writers to do solo projects without coordinating with another participant. For the big bang option, minimum word count is 10K, and the creator who claims the fic can make any type of fanwork (including another fic) as a companion piece. The solo-writing option does not have a minimum word count; "We offer this option for writers who can’t or don’t want to commit to writing a 10k fic or aren’t interested in collaborations, but still want to be part of the challenge." (Accessed 10 October 2023.)
Participants must be over 18.
The challenge allows "all ships, tropes, themes, kinks, and ratings".
The challenge was set up to allow fans to participate anonymously, due to fans expressing fears of being harassed by Bandom Big Bang's supporters., 7 December 2021.
==Challenge History==
For the 2022 challenge, signups started in December 2021, and completed fanworks went live on July 1, 2022. The mods were L, Sarka, and ?? The AO3 collection includes 13 fanworks--9 MCR, 4 FOB, and 2 Danger Days. The two most popular ships are Frank/Gerard and Pete/Patrick. Ratings range from Explicit/Mature (6 works) to Teen/General Audiences (7 works); 9 works are marked "No Archive Warnings Apply", 2 Choose Not To Warn, 2 Underage, and 1 Graphic Violence.
For the 2023 challenge, signups opened January 2023, tumblr post by bandomsummer, 16 December 2022., and completed fanworks were revealed on July 3, 2023. The mods were Fontainebleau, Kaysa, Mini and Mod M. The AO3 collection includes 12 fanworks--9 MCR, 5 FOB, 3 L.S. Dunes, 1 Thursday, 1 No Devotion, 1 Taking Back Sunday. A wide range of ships were included; the most popular was Anthony Green/Frank Iero with 3 fanworks. Ratings range from Explicit/Mature (6 works) to Teen/General Audiences (6 works); 8 works are marked "No Archive Warnings Apply", 2 Choose Not To Warn, 2 Rape, and 1 Graphic Violence.
For the 2024 challenge, writer signups were open during January 2024 and creator signups were open from April 1 to 14, 2024., tumblr post by bandomsummer, Accessed 21 August 2024. Completed fanworks were revealed on July 1, 2024. The mods were Kaysa, Mini, and moit., tumblr page by bandomsummer, archived May 31, 2024 The AO3 collection includes 23 fanworks--13 MCR, 9 FOB, 3 L.S. Dunes, 3 Thursday, 1 Electronic Dance Music RPF, 1 From First to Last, 1 Skrillex. A wide range of ships were included; the most popular were Pete/Patrick with 6 fanworks and Frank/Gerard with 5 fanworks. Ratings range from Explicit/Mature (11 works) to Teen/General Audiences (11 works); one work was not rated. 18 works are marked "No Archive Warnings Apply", 4 Choose Not To Warn, 1 Rape, and 1 Underage.
==Origin and Controversy==
Bandom Summer Blowout (BSB) was created in response to new mods at Bandom Big Bang (BBB) banning some ships and topics in fanworks: Waycest along with "pedophilia, explicit underage, and explicit non-con"., tumblr post by bandombigbang, 24 November 2021. See Bandom Big Bang#Content Restrictions for more details.
When the BSB mods announced their new challenge on twitter, fans who liked the content restrictions pushed back:
*"YKINMK is for like piss kinks and mpreg n shit, not fucking pedophilia and incest. fucking freaks.", 6 December 2021.
*"Just say you made it out of spite for BBB its ok. :) just say you wanted to make a challenge that supports people and themes that have been banned for a good reason :)", 6 December 2021.
*"idc how close we are if you participate in this our friendship is over <3 absolutely pathetic making this little spiteful challenge because the mods didn’t let you write incest and underage fic in bbb/didn’t allow authors who made ppl uncomfortable.... just seen someone say 'you just want to censor artists' so consider this: incest freaks are not artists", 6 December 2021.
*"Ok - I’m not going to get into it too much, but I just want to say that as a grown ass adult in this fandom, I feel a responsibility to ensure the safety of those younger than me. ... The fact that these GROWN ADULTS felt SO fucking offended by being excluded by BBB, who ONLY wanted to ensure that everyone felt SAFE, because they write explicit in*cest, underage, and extreme non-con, that they made a whole other challenge out of spite is INSANE.", , , 6 December 2021.
*"You could have just written something else for the challenge and posted whatever else you want independently on ao3, instead you make a challenge specifically for that kind of content… the two possible conclusions are you’re incapable of writing about anything else or just petty", 6 December 2021.
*"yall r freaks for real", 6 December 2021.
Other fans took a different view, sending messages of support to the mods:
Bandom Summer Blowout mods stated that the challenge was not a "spite event" but an effort to create a space that catered to them, that the challenge had a zero tolerance policy toward harassment, and that "Writing about fictional illegal actions is not illegal nor does it mean that the writer or reader of this fiction condones or supports these actions.", tumblr post by bandomsummer, 7 December 2021.
==References==
Category:2022 Challenges
Category:2023 Challenges
Category:2024 Challenges