Last Saturday, 4 October, Spellenfestival took place in Genk (BE) and I was there again this year! So it's time for a short report on this games convention.
Spellenfestival is organised in the Limburghal in Genk: a fairly spacious hall which, not unimportantly, is easily accessible by car. There is also plenty of parking space, so fortunately you won't have to lug your new games hundreds of metres. Incidentally, I have no idea whether it is easily accessible by public transport, but if I am correct, the train station is not very far away.
The first thing I noticed was the big change compared to last year: this time, the second-hand stand was set up in the entrance hall. In my opinion, this was a nice improvement, because it freed up a lot of space in the main hall itself. As with most game conventions, the second-hand stand was very busy. I didn't queue myself, but went to have a look later in the day. Even then, the selection of games was still quite large and of good quality. From what I saw, it was clear that a lot of effort had been put into making the second-hand stand run smoothly. At the end of the day, most of the games seemed to have been sold, so it might be a good way to get rid of your old games.
In the exhibition hall itself, the information desk was immediately on the left and the catering facilities on the right. I didn't use them myself, but I did see that the queues for both could get quite long at times. These catering facilities were the only ones in the hall, and you had to buy tokens at the information desk to pay for them.
What is immediately noticeable is that this is primarily a games fair for players, not for buyers. The vast majority of the hall is filled (but spaciously!) with tables and chairs so that you can play games and have them explained to you by someone from the publisher's demo team. Although I thought it was a bit busier in terms of visitor numbers than last year, I did get the impression that you never really had to wait to join in and play.
Most publishers did indeed have a number of tables, but no stand to actually sell the games immediately. If you still wanted to go home with some “loot”, you could go to the two ends of the hall, where on one side De Dobbelkelder and on the other side of the hall Oberonn had a large number of games for sale. I didn't pay close attention, but I believe that most of the games you could try out were also available at at least one of these two shops. In any case, I bought Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons and Take Time, two games I was hoping to find at the fair. Because it was also “Customer Day” in Belgium, I even got a free copy of Rulebenders!
For a slightly smaller selection, but just as much enthusiasm, you could also visit Stip Genk to score some new acquisitions. Here I found Wie Weet Wat: Horror; perfect for the upcoming spooky season! More interested in TCG? Then you had to be in the middle of the hall, at Magic Vortex.
In addition to buying and playing, there was also the opportunity to participate in the lottery. For one token, you could draw one envelope. If it was empty, you were out of luck. If there was a number in it, you won a game. To my surprise, I won Rats of Wistar from DSV Games! (And as a result, I went home with more games than I had planned...)
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All in all, there is something for everyone, but the fair itself is clearly more focused on letting visitors play games. If you only go to the fair to buy games, you can certainly do so, but you will have seen just about everything within an hour. After that, you will of course have plenty of time to browse through the second-hand games.
For me, the fair was a success again this time. A nice hall with good accessibility certainly plays a role for me, but as a visitor, you also felt welcome in the hall. Another big advantage is that it is not too crowded, unlike some other, larger conventions.
As far as I know, the date for next year has not yet been announced. In any case, I will keep an eye on the Spellenfestival website and who knows, maybe we will see each other there in 2026!
This review is not sponsored and does not contain any paid promotion;
it is solely a personal recommendation.
