Events/History

July 2008

Saturday 26th

• Sandpit games at Duty Free at Stoke Newington International Airport (note: not actually an airport), London, England map

An afternoon featuring bands, a barbecue, and juggling from the Airport crowd, with an assortment of mostly-new Sandpit games running on-and-off between 4 and 8pm.

August 2008

Sunday 10th

• Kensington vs Chelsea in Kensington and Chelsea, London, England

Kensington and Chelsea face each other down once and for all in a game that stretches from Chelsea Embankment to Holland Park. Pledge loyalty to the Blue Boar of Kensington or the Silver-Winged Bull of Chelsea, then chase down your enemies, or dodge past them; work alone or with dozens of other players to carry the emblems of your team into the enemy stronghold. With ribbons, balloons, sneaking and spying.

Designed and run by Holly Gramazio.

Thursday 21st

• Sandpit #6 in Brighton, England

For Sandpit #6 we’ll be venturing out of London for the first time, and heading to Brighton. We’ll be at the Lighthouse on 28 Kensington Street, BN1 4AJ. Doors (and bar) open at six, scheduled games begin at seven.

It’s a busy programme, including Festival favourites Checkpoint, HipSync and the Lost Sport of Olympia, as well as new games Tourist Trap and City Blocks, a repeat of Standoff, and more. Full details are up on the Sandpit events page.

September 2008

Friday 19th - Sunday 21st

• Igfest in Bristol, England

igfest is the festival of interesting and experimental games, with a particular focus on Street Games and Pervasive Games. Taking place as part of the Bristol festival, the event is dedicated to bringing urban games to the public and allowing them to rediscover the city through play.

Submissions are now closed but if you're keen to get involved, we are looking for festival volunteers. Bristol festival events, you’ll be fed and watered and (the killer offer) get a free igfest octopus t-shirt how could anyone resist… contact us at info@igfest.org for more details.

Saturday 20th

• Bees in London, England

Holly will be running three games of Bees at the Southbank Centre during the afternoon on Saturday, as part of their Festival of Food. The game has been rebranded as Be a Bee, and is being pitched at children.

Friday 26th

• Bootleggers in Berkeley, California

1pm - 2pm, meet on the steps of Wheeler Hall. Smuggle things across the border from Dwinelle Hall to Wheeler Hall, but don't let the Border Patrol catch you! Inspired by the premise of Andrew Field's Checkpoint, this is a variant of that game adapted for the UC Berkeley campus. Cookies will likely be provided. Facebook event information here.

Saturday 27th

• Checkpoint and People Watching in Southend-on-Sea, England

The game's designers will be running both of these games in a Southend park as part of the Village Green festival, with a lot of other music, film and live events happening.

Checkpoint is running at 2.30pm, with furniture being smuggled into a rose garden.

October 2008

Saturday 11th

• Night Watch in London, England

6:30pm - 8:30pm

A mysterious game of prisoners sneaking across Hampstead Heath, and escaping to freedom. This is the plan. Join the Facebook group if you want to play.

Wednesday 29th

• Sandpit #7 in London, England

6:30 - 10:00pm

We're at 01zero-one in Soho as part of the London Games Fringe. We'll be playing Day of the Thing (reskinned for halloween as Night of the Vampire), the teleporting chase-game Mr Smith, Privacy is Dead, Musical Hopscotch, mp3-tech Earpiece and Surpass the Parcel. The evening will also include a demonstration game of the Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen roleplaying game, which was relaunched this month.

Full programme here.

November 2008

Saturday 1st

• Cruel 2 B Kind in London, Manchester and Plymouth

2pm-4pm, £4 donation required

Those nice people at the Agency are running three games of Cruel 2 B Kind across the country on Saturday afternoon; a fitting game of benevolent assassination, with all profits going to Cancer Research UK.

More details on the Operation Sleeper Cell site at http://www.operationsleepercell.com/c2bk

Sunday 2nd

• SF Street Turf in San Francisco

3pm-7pm, Panhandle (Westside) - Shrader between Fell/Oak

Get your streetwise spirit back by claiming some serious SF Street Turf in an all-out massively multiplayer real world game of Capture the Flag, in the streets and green spaces of San Francisco. Free to play, and free T-shirts for the first sixty players.

Find out more at the Facebook event page.

Thursday 27th

• Rear Window in London

6pm-7pm

As part of the "With a Small P" programme ("Can playing be a political gesture?"), Checkpoint designer Andy Field is running Rear Window, "a chillingly exiting social experiment, drenched in Hitchcockian suspense and rooted in Stanley Milgram’s cynical spirit of experimentation. Inviting participants to test their courage and their resistance to peer pressure, Andy dares the audience to find out how long it takes before one intervenes against the status quo..."

More information at http://www.delfinafoundation.com/exhibitions_and_talks.html

December 2008

Tuesday 2nd

• Rear Window in London

6pm-7pm

As Thursday 27th of November.

Tuesday 9th - Saturday 13th

• A Small Town Anywhere

8pm onwards

A Small Town Anywhere has no performers, only you and the other audience members - the playing audience. Become the residents of this small town, where amenities include a pub, a prison and a working postal service. You’ll talk to friends and strangers, mostly one-on-one. Or you can skulk in the shadows and write letters. But let’s hope you’re not forced to leave town…

Coney are running their full-on, bells-and-whistles version of The Gossip Game at BAC five nights this week, developed with the support of the National Theatre Studio. Full details and ticket booking at http://bac.org.uk/whatsonresult.php?id=3233

January 2009

Tuesday 27th

• Iglab Seven in Bristol, England

7:30pm onwards at the Pervasive Media Studio

The Interesting Games Lab returns to the streets of Bristol for 2009, with "the future of pervasive computing", the new game of CARGO from Simon and Simon, and some mulled cider.

More details on the Iglab blog.

Thursday 29th

• BARG

A gathering of folks who’d like to discuss social games and playful things with an aim to either designing their own or just getting involved in playing some interesting stuff. Story-tellers welcome.

Old Lamp Tavern, Digbeth, Birmingham. B5 6AH [Map]

Thursday 29th from 7pm.

more information

February 2009

Tuesday 10th

• The Fun Fed in London, England

Games ranging from high energy tag games to wink murder, word games, physical games, creative games and rhythm games.

£10.00 per person