International Fanworks Day

International Fanworks Day is an annual event on February 15th celebrating and promoting fanworks of all kinds. 
The holiday was proposed in 2014 by the Organization for Transformative Works and the first International Fanworks Day celebrations were held on February 15th 2015. 
Communities and individuals are encouraged to take part in celebrations through various means. Some of the original suggestions for ways to celebrate the occasion included:
* A day of activism: reaching out to legislators or taking part in an organization's campaign for the public's right to remix
* A day of renewal: dusting off a WIP that was put aside when things got busy
* A day of reflection: writing meta about what fanworks mean to them
* A day of sharing: posting recs to their favorite works for others
* A day of traditions: organizing a Fanworks Day challengeAnnouncing International Fanworks Day, Organization for Transformative Works. Published February 18, 2014 (Accessed February 15, 2020).
The date of February 15th was selected due to the twin milestones at AO3 and Fanlore, the first having reached 1 million fanworks and the second passing 500,000 edits.
==Origin==
On 15 February 2014, the Archive of Our Own reached the milestone of one million fanworks.AO3 Reaches 1 Million Fanworks, AO3 News. Published February 15, 2014 (Accessed February 15, 2020). The OTW celebrated the milestone with a "milestone weekend"Update on the Milestone weekend, Organization for Transformative Works, published February 17, 2014 (Accessed February 15, 2020). which included posting fanworks to AO3 using the "AO3 1 million" tag and posting fic recs to Twitter and Tumblr using the hashtag #AO3million. 
On exactly the same day, Fanlore reached 500,000 edits, and marked the occasion with a celebration in Fanlore's then-chatroom on Campfire.(Almost) Half a million edits!- chat by fanloremod via Dreamwidth, published February 15, 2014 (Accessed February 15, 2020).
After the Milestone Weekend celebrations wrapped up, the Organization for Transformative Works published a post entitled "Announcing International Fanworks Day":
The post continued with some suggestions for how fans might choose to celebrate the occasion. The following year, the first International Fanworks Day was celebrated.International Fanworks Day is Here!, Organization for Transformative Works, published February 14, 2015 (Accessed February 15, 2020).
==International Fanworks Day 2015==
 
The OTW announced various related events including: 
* IFDrabble, a short fanworks challenge to be held at any fandom community that wanted to participate. 759 works were added to the International Fanworks Day 2015 tag on AO3. Participants on Twitter shared fandom-inspired haiku or links to short stories in tweets using the hashtag "#IFDrabble". Many safe-for-work examples were featured on the AO3 and Fanlore twitter accounts.
* A roundtable discussion titled Why Fanworks Should Be Celebrated was held, with the participation of authors Cecilia Tan, Tara Sue Me and Racheline Maltese.
* Individual fan communities including Young Riders Italia, the Lewis Challenge LJ group and the Silmarillion Writers' Guild held events of their own to encourage their members to create new works or rec old ones.
=== Response ===
There were various references to the day by different outlets, notably Romance Times Book Reviews, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, the Verity! Podcast and The Mary Sue.
== International Fanworks Day 2016 ==
The OTW announced various related events including: 
* IFDrabble, a short fanworks challenge to be held at any fandom community that wanted to participate. 281 works were added to the International Fanworks Day 2016 tag on AO3. 
* Feedback Fest encouraged viewers to leave recs to favorite fanworks. Over 1000 fanworks were mentioned and linked.
* Games and Fan Chat: The OTW hosted a 35-hour party in its Public Discussion chatroom and scheduled various fannish related games that took place as IFD 2016 moved through timezones internationally.
=== Response ===
The 2016 event was the topic of discussion at The Slash Report and The Crafting System. Various other sites mentioned the event in passing. Also, the the UBC Innovation Library in Kelowna, Canada held a Focus on Fanfiction event in celebration of International Fanworks Day on February 15th. 
== International Fanworks Day 2017 ==
The OTW announced various related events including: 
* IFDrabble, a short fanworks challenge to be held at any fandom community that wanted to participate. 142 works were added to the International Fanworks Day 2017 tag on AO3. 
* Feedback Fest encouraged viewers to leave recs to favorite fanworks. 136 posts were made to the Feedback Fest post at AO3 mentioning and linking over 1000 works.
* What Fanworks Mean to Me, a meta challenge which involved hashtagging the event across fannish spaces and discussing the effect of fanworks on people's lives. The OTW published six entries on their outlets, which had been submitted to them from around the world.
=== Response ===
The 2017 event went largely unremarked in other fannish locations. The Daily Fandom used the occasion to highlight fanwork formats other than fanfiction, and some such as at Babi a Fi wrote about their history in fandom (and used Fanlore as a resource.)
== International Fanworks Day 2018 ==
The OTW once again held various related events including: 
* IFDrabble, a short fanworks challenge to be held at any fandom community that wanted to participate. Over 234 works were added to the International Fanworks Day 2018 tag on AO3. 
* Feedback Fest encouraged viewers to leave recs to favorite fanworks. Comments were made to the Feedback Fest post at AO3 mentioning and linking to over 500 fanworks. 
* What Fanworks Mean to Me, a meta challenge which involved hashtagging the event and discussing one's connection to or inspiration from fanworks. This was active largely on Twitter with around 100 participants. Many hundreds more fans met to chat and play games at an OTW-run chat party spanning February 15th.
Fanlore held the IFD 2018 Fanlore Challenge, a week-long Fanlore editing challenge appropriate to new and experienced editors.
=== Response ===
Nerds and Beyond highlighted the event and the participation of WIP Big Bang. The Mary Sue wrote about the event as well, highlighting the #WhatFanworksMeantoMe activity on Twitter.
==International Fanworks Day 2019==
The OTW asked the wider fan community what they would be doing to mark the day! It also invited submissions on the topic “What fanworks mean to me.”
Fanlore brought back the IFD Fanlore Challenge for a second year, running for the week of 11-17 February. Additionally, the OTW once again organized a number of events:
==Fan Comments==
Some fans have made jokes about telling non-fans that their favourite holiday is in February and having the other person assume they mean Valentine's Day:
==Further Reading==
*International Fanworks Day, The Mary Sue (2015)
*Celebrate International Fanworks Day on February 15th!, The Daily Fandom (2016)
*International Fanworks Day 2018, Nerds and Beyond (2018)
==References==
Category:Fandom Occurrences
Category:Organization for Transformative Works