Tobacco City Inception
Urban Games Festival
The first urban games festival of the city of Plovdiv, European capital of Culture 2019.
It was May 2017 when I received a call from a number from Bulgaria, not knowing anybody in the area I was really surprised when the voice on the other end asked me if I was interested on curating a festival in the city of Plovdiv, it seemed a dream, how was that possible?
It turns out that both Matera and Plovdiv were awarded the title of European Capital of Culture and the way they were collaborating was sharing some of the topics of each other candidacy, urban games being one of these.
Of course I accepted on the spot!
The timeline was pretty crazy, 3 months to set up a call and produce the first urban game festival of the city from the ground up!
But Gina and Plodviv team was just amazing, super responsive and also very supportive and excited, so we crafted the call and publish it, inviting all the friends of the european urban game community to apply. The promise, to host one game during the two day festival that will take place in October in Plovdiv.
The area of the festival was also incredibly suggestive an entire abandoned neighborhood of the city of Plovdiv, Tobacco City, where, during the last 40 years the nationalized production of cigarettes was hosted. Building over building rich in history that were awaiting for some energy and new stories to be told
We selected the team and the games: Paradionoia by PlayVienna (AU) and ToGatherCity by Department Gier (PL)
and invited some extra guests: the team from Matera that I’ve collaborated with during the creation of Klink, Greg Foster that hosted the workshop about it and Gabi Linde, a game designer and festival curator from the city of Koln, also in the bunch we were able to play Incognito Battleclash one of our most successful games.
The games were covering different styles and were a good opportunity to showcase the world of urban games to a city that never had exposure to that.
Every game was just perfect!
ToGatherCity by Stowarzyszenie Topografie - Department Gier, a group of curator and urban games designer from Lodz, Poland was a great exploration of the area from families and also a great metaphor to understand the different process that a city can go under.
Paradionoia by PlayVienna was a night chase game looking for the scattered pieces of your own soul, highly suggestive and perfect for the area of Tobacco City.
Finally Incognito Battleclash was a great family task based game that crossed the entire city of Plodviv reconnecting Tobacco City to the othe incredible and beautiful areas of the city.
The response from Plovdiv Citizens was amazing
Hundreds of people played the games, of all ages at all time!
We were also featured in the Bulgarian National television and as usual it was amazing to share out stories, reconnect with old friends and bring energy back to the magic place that is Tobacco City.
Credits
Tobacco City Inception, urban games festival Plovdiv 2019
Curated by Matteo Uguzzoni
Produced by Plovdiv 2019 Europe Capital of Culture
Invited Artist: PlayVienna (AU) , Department Gier (PL), Klink Matera (IT), Greg Foster (UK), Gabi Linde (DE).
Pictures by Plovdiv 2019 (Facebook Page)