Vocarnival FAQs

Have questions about Vocarnival? Here’s out FAQ section to help you out!

General Vocarnival Questions

Charm Contest Questions

Artzine Questions

Song Event Questions

General Vocarnival Questions

What is Vocarnival?

Vocarnival is a non-profit fan-run event aiming to celebrate our love of vocal synths by celebrating their 5th, 10th, and 15th (and eventually 20th) anniversaries. While we don’t celebrate every vocal synth character, we do try our hardest to celebrate as many lesser-loved characters as possible.

Our goal is to spread the love of these vocal synth characters and give fans of them the chance to own merchandise of their favorite characters, thereby promoting creativity and unity within the vocal synth community.

How do I join?

Joining the events is simple! To make entries into any of the event categories, simply submit your entry using the appropriate form. Want to join in on the celebrations by hanging out with other synth fans (or simply want to show off your works in progress)? Check out our Discord!

Are there any deadlines?

Of course! Every event has a deadline for the entries and there’s a voting deadline as well for the charm contest. Please check the form for the event you wish to enter for the deadline to enter.

How do you choose which synth(s) you’re going to celebrate?

We first and foremost try to focus on synths that likely aren’t going to have official anniversary celebrations from their companies. For example, Vocarnival staff absolutely LOVE KAITO. And as much as we wanted to celebrate his 15th, we knew it would be doing a disservice to synths who wouldn’t be receiving such attention from their company.

Once we narrow it down to that, we then decide which characters would likely receive enough attention from the fandom to warrant an event. We try to balance between characters who may or may not do well and then add characters we feel will do okay to help balance the budget.

Charm Contest Questions

Can I enter art I previously made?

Vocarnival uses special event designs for each event. These designs are different outfits from what the character usually wears and are unique to the Vocarnival event. So no, as you probably haven’t drawn art featuring this design before.

Do I keep the rights to my artwork?

Yes! You’re free to post your artwork and retain all rights to it. We do request you be respectful of Vocarnival, though, and not make merchandise using the design. We want the charms to be specially made just for the event and selling charms/stickers/etc later on would make the charms feel a lot less special.

How are the winners decided?

Charm contest winners are decided by popular vote.

Each charm contest will have one winner decided by the vote of the fandom. We take incredible lengths to avoid vote spamming/bot voting to give everyone as fair of a chance as possible.

Occasionally, there may also be a “Staff Pick” or “Runner Up” winner who receives the same winnings as the standard winner. These winners are for charms that the staff agreed were exceptional or for a charm that got incredibly close to winning. However, we will rarely have a second winner and will only use these on cases where we received a lot more votes than usual. (Piko Palooza received 238 unique votes, more than double any other event held in 2020)

What do I get for winning the charm contest?

Charm contest winners receive their charm as well as an official event charm for free. Depending on budget, we may also include extra merchandise such as an acrylic stand featuring the official event design as well. Winners also have royalties paid to them on each sale made.

Can you explain “royalties”?

100% of the profit from the charm contest keychain goes straight to you. The only cost we take out of each sale is the cost to produce the keychain. Everything else goes to you as payment for us using your design.

What happens if I don’t win?

You still maintain all rights to the art and can do what you’d like with it. The only thing we ask is to not make merch with it.

Can I post my work before the contest is over?

We ask that you not post your work before the contest is over. This way everyone has a fair chance and there’s less of a chance of the contest votes leaning towards entries with more followers. However, you’re more than welcome to post your entry once the contest is over. We actually encourage you to save it until the character’s anniversary, though, to make it even more special. (Plus we share any Vocarnival related art posted on a character’s anniversary)

Artzine Questions

Can I enter art I previously made?

Due to the fact that Vocarnival uses special event designs and requires all art submissions to use these designs, no. Your previous art hasn’t used the event design and is not eligible. Plus creating a new piece just for the event makes it a lot more special!

Do I keep the rights to my artwork?

Yes! You maintain all rights to your artwork. We do ask that you not make merchandise with the artwork made for the event but that’s it.

Will there be a physical zine?

Due to the pricing and logistics of a zine project, most likely no. We’d love to do a physical zine one day but it’s expensive and takes a lot of time to make a really nice zine.

Can I include other characters?

Yes but the event character MUST be the main focus of the piece and the only main focus. All other synths should be more background or supportive roles vs sharing the spotlight.

Can I post my work before the artzine is released?

Yes but please be sure to post it on the character’s anniversary and not beforehand. The artzine is released by 12:00 AM Eastern Time on the anniversary of the character. However, we understand timezones are different and that you may want to celebrate early. That’s perfectly okay. Just be sure to tag us so we can share your post!

Song Event Questions

Can I enter a song I previously made?

Only if it’s a cover of a song you previously made using the event synth. All songs are supposed to premier on the day of the character’s birthday so we won’t accept anything made previously.

Do I keep the rights to my music?

Yes! You’re free to make covers, remixes, and anything you want with the song. You can include it in albums and anything else you’d like. The song showcase is less oriented towards the event and more towards just celebrating the voice banks and their anniversaries in general.

Are there any plans to make an album?

Yes but not in 2021. We’ve been looking at possibilities but haven’t found anything completely doable at the moment.

Can I include other synths in the song?

Yes but they must be background or supporting vocals. The celebrated synth should be the one taking center stage and doing the performance. Others can join in but should be letting the birthday synth have their day.