Welcome to Blaugust 2026
Posted on August 1, 2026 by Aywren
I am participating in this year’s Blaugust in memory of Belghast, the original creator and host of this blogging festival.
Last month, we lost Belghast in his fight against cancer. The mentors of the Blaugust Discord, of which I am one, were determined to see Blaugust continue on in his honor. Just as he would have wanted.
I’m going to admit that I had considered sitting out Blaugust this year, or participating very mildly. I’ve got a lot going on IRL right now as I’m still job hunting after a layoff last December, and looking into where my life is going to lead me next.
I won’t go into too much detail about myself in this post – I’ll write an update post later in the month – but all this to say, after the loss of Bel, I knew that I had to help and participate in however I was able.
I’m currently writing this post 10 days ahead of time, hoping that should I build up a buffer of posts before Blaugust, I’ll be ready to tackle it when August begins. I’m also doing this because I’m uncertain what my time and stress levels will look like come August.
However, there’s a part of me that knows the importance behind what Blaugust stands for and what it’s meant to be. I also know that I’ll often start a challenge like this with hesitation only to catch my wind a few weeks in. I’m usually happy that I see things like this through.
I’m not sure if I will commit to all 31 days of blogging this year. But you know what, that’s not what matters.
What matters is that I give it my best try and do what I can to support the blogging community. Especially new and returning bloggers.
It was for that reason that, as a mentor, I volunteered to take up a caretaker position of the official Blaugust Mastodon account, which was previously run by Belghast. The idea behind this account is to reblog all the Blaugust posts as I see them on Mastodon, just to give them further exposure and spread the news of the event in the Fediverse.
I’ve long wanted to do my share of supporting the event, and keeping up with the reblog account makes a lot of sense for me. I’m often checking in on Mastodon, so it’s a natural thing to add to what I already do, and something that doesn’t take a huge amount of time investment.
I know that I feel better in volunteering to help this way, too, since there are so many awesome mentors who have already taken on the bulk of the organization duties. Anyhow, if you are on Mastodon, or any social media, be sure to tag your posts with the #Blaugust or #Blaugust2026 hashtags and I will be more than happy to share your posts around this year!
Remember that this is more about building a community with other bloggers than it is about hitting a perfect 31 days of blogging. Any effort you put forth is superior to never trying at all.
As always, I wish everyone the best for this blogging festival!