Written by; KC Ogbuagu
The Largest gathering of Tabletop Games enthusiast, admirers, creators and/or interests is starting today!
This is what I found on Wikipedia about the convention;
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day boardgame trade fair which is also open to the public held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen, Germany. It began in 1983. With 1 021 exhibitors from 50 nations in 2016, SPIEL is the biggest fair for board games in the world.
In 2019, Spiel had a staggering 209,000 attendance – a different way to view this number is having enough crowd to fill Barcelona’s Camp Nou football stadium completely, twice! Or the Lagos National Stadium 4 times!
A lot is happening already! The hashtag #Spiel2021 all over social media excitedly tells you what to expect and if you have friends who are attending, you get to see more hall set-ups, games and booth posters such as this;
Covid-19 restrictions already has its toll on this year’s attendance but it is such a huge step forward compared to 2020 when the Con was forced to be online as Spiel Digital (recall that NIBCARD Games – Host of AB Con was invited and given a free Exhibition Booth at the online space).
Every Tabletop Games designer, developer, content creator, publisher, manufacturer always aspire to attend Spiel because it’s believed that you almost will see every game and component there – this shouldn’t be surprising though when 1,200 exhibitors came with something to showcase and/or sell.
Covid-19 may not have allowed me attend this year’s but Spiel like many other conventions around the world call to my heart and we will meet soon and in person.
Just as Spiel, we hope that the African Boardgames Convention – AB Con – will someday welcome so many people from different world who want to enjoy the beauty of Tabletop games.
If you didn’t attend Spiel this year, no worries! Let’s sit back and when you can, check out the #Spiel2021 and enjoy the view and experience – I am!
Here is more stuffs from the Spiel’s website!
SPIEL ’21 is the world’s largest public fair for games and thus the Mecca for all board game fans. Here you can get comprehensive information about the entire national and international range of games, test them in detail and buy your favorite games right away.
In 2019, more than 1,200 exhibitors from 53 nations showed children’s, parlor, family and adult games as well as strategy, post, adventure, fantasy, science fiction and computer games on an area of around 86,000 square meters. Of course, the classics Skat, Chess, Doppelkopf, Bridge, Go and Backgammon are not missing. A range of comics rounds off the program.
Once again, it will be possible to try out not only thousands of games of the current year, but also more than 1,000 new games. They will all be subjected to an initial endurance test in Essen.
For more information, visit Spiel Website
KC Ogbuagu
Creative Director/Founder
NIBCARD Games
