One of the best weekends of the summer! Absolute chaos, such fun and that rosy glow of satisfaction at having done something different for a change. Simon Johnson’s igfest kicked off in spectacular fashion with

Journey to the Centre of the Night, a game involving over 170 people who were emailed a secret location on the day of playing and were told to meet at dusk. What ensued turned out to be a real highlight of the weekend for everyone involved. ‘Players’ following cryptic clues across Bristol, stalked by the fearsome ‘chasers’, encountering bizarre and wonderful experiences if they were stealthy enough to evade capture. Locations included gold-digging in Castle park, intense intimidation in the cells of Bridewell police station and a frantic dash across the river in a specially commissioned boat.

Rainbow Rain on a sunny Saturday afternoon was a glorious spectacle mixing the carnage of Battle Royale and the paint-spattering creativity of Play School Arts Day. Three teams, three colours, and eventually a paint spattered Castle Park even Van Gogh would be happy with.

Sneaks and Blaggers, an urban twist on Snakes and Ladders, was played out in a town centre Cark Park as the dust settled on a momentous Saturday. Players congregated for the briefing outside the high rise car park, some still paint-covered and exhausted from previous exploits, ready for the tower block battle - a mad dash up the stairs and down the ramps, collecting coloured strips, avoiding the ‘Blaggers’ stalking the car park in sleigh bells, to finish first with by shouting : “DULUX!”

Korean Laser Ball was an energetic start to Sunday, with teams of 5 battling it out in the Arnolfini Arena, commentated superbly by two visiting Americans. Each team had a theme song, a costume, a laser, 2 mirrors and one target. The battles were fast and furious, and only the highest scoring teams progressed. Team Perv, honourbly entering the arena to show how it was done, racked up a measly 6 to the following scores of 50, 68 and 100. Team Rubber suffered an ignominious defeat despite an awesome fightback from behind in the 2nd quarter…

A huge thank you to Clare Reddington, Simon Johnson, the Helens, Mobile Pie, Ed Nixon (for the poilcemen photo) and many many more who helped make this such a special event. Roll on next year

We know! So if you’re looking for something free and fun to do, like Alton Towers with no ticket booths then the ‘igfest - come out and play festival’ is making a grand opening at the Bristol Harbourside from the 19th - 21st September.

igFest (Interesting Games Festival)

Taking place around the Harbourside in Bristol, igfest is the first festival in the south west to invite people to discover and re-discover the city through playing games in the streets.

There are tons of games over the weekend, too many for anyone to play them all, but we hope you’ll love them all so much you will want to try as many as you can.

Here’s a few you’ll enjoy that weekend…

Moose Hunt

Moose will be making his autumn migration from the deepest Forest of Dean to Bristol over the week before the festival. Your mission is to find him and photograph him. Text ‘moose’ to 60300 to receive a map of the moose’s current location. But be careful, the moose will be told your location and if he ’shoots’ you before you ’shoot’ him you are out of the game. Prizes for photographs in various categories including first sighting.

Holla Lu Lu

Fill the night with your sound. Find members of your team across the city by hollering your unique cry.

Koreanlazerball

Korean Lazer Ball is the newest sport of the 21st Century.

Teams of lazer gladiators battle it out, scoring goals by bouncing the lazer beam from hand-held mirrors onto a super high-tech spot on the wall.

I personally suggest the Comfort of Strangers, a street game which was created in the media sandbox 07.

All the games’ start times can be seen on their Schedule and the only cost for you is your time (and the bus into town obviusly), ‘cos everyone & anyone in Bristol can play! For free!

See you there at the igLounge by the Watershed.

IgFest is organised by The igLab (Interesting Games Lab).