WHY THE HELL SHOULD I GO TO “SPIEL”?
It’s an unique opportunity to travel with a bunch of super cozy nerds from Zealand, Jutland, Funen and the Moon – no, we don’t all know one another (yet).
The world’s largest trade fair for board games (including a few stands of live roleplay stuff and comics). Halls and more halls filled with games, games and more games! A lot of newly released games, and game developers from all over the world.
EVERY game designer worth mentioning will be there, as will almost EVERY publisher (this is probably less true this year, though).
You can play all the new games, supervised by the designers. And you can pick up 6,000,000 promos, and have your purchases signed.
Board games at crazy low prices; new games at 25-50 euro, ‘old games’ (meaning not from this year) at 5-30 euro.
Rich opportunities to eat, play games, crawl pubs and have fun with your fellow travelers.
*****BASTARD TOURS TO SPIEL – SOFT FACTS*****
WHY THE HELL SHOULD I GO TO “SPIEL”?
It’s an unique opportunity to travel with a bunch of super cozy board game enthusiasts from Zealand, Jutland, Funen and the Moon – no, we don’t all know one another (yet).
The world’s largest trade fair for board games (including a few stands of live roleplay stuff and comics). Halls and more halls filled with games, games and more games! A lot of newly released games, and game developers from all over the world.
EVERY game designer worth mentioning will be there, as will almost EVERY publisher (this may be less true this year, for obvious reasons).
You can play all the new games, supervised by the designers. And you can pick up 6,000,000 promos, and have your purchases signed.
Board games at crazy low prices; new games at 25-50 euro, ‘old games’ (meaning not from this year) at 5-30 euro.
Rich opportunities to eat, play games, crawl pubs and have fun with your fellow travelers.
*****BASTARD TOURS TO SPIEL – INFO AND STUFF*****
WHAT ABOUT TRANSPORT?
As people come from everywhere in the country, we are not organizing a joint transport to Essen. If you arrive by plane it’s easiest to book to Dusseldorf and from there a train that runs to Essen Hbf (it’s a short ride and not that expensive).
It’s possible to coordinate and get input on cheap travel via this Facebook event. If you find cheap flights, please share them.
There will usually be a designated “Bastard Plane” (one specific departure that we tell people to buy, so they have a greater chance of finding each other).
It’s also possible to travel by other planes (of course), by train (book via Deutche Bahn’s own website, it’s usually cheaper than DSB), private car or bus (look up the rules and prices).
IS IT A TRIP FOR ME?
The Bastard tour to Essen is NOT a carefully planned scouting trip where we all go hand in hand together. Bastard Café is (apart from being a place where you can play games) also a loosely connected community of people with the same passion for board games – we might create the framework, but you create the experiences. This tour is similarly organized. This means that you can select what you wish to participate in, and nobody expects that you must participate in all common meals, or that we should go together (this is also impossible at the fair). Choose what you like and go with the flow.
THE FAIR ITSELF
The SPIEL fair opens on a Thursday in October and closes on Sunday three days after. We have made it possible to get to the hotel already on Tuesday and go home on Monday. Traditionally, the vast majority of Bastards will arrive on Wednesday and go home on Sunday.
WHAT DOES IT COST?
There is a sign-up fee of 250 DKK if you are a member of Bastard café, or 400 DKK if you are not. One year membership costs 150 DKK and provides various advantages which are detailed in our homepage, so if you are not already a member, buy a membership first.
WHAT ABOUT THE HOTEL?
Hotel is “Motel One Essen” at Kennedy Platz in Essen. It’s in the middle of the city and close to the Ubahn. We have been at the hotel many years and it is of good standard. We have booked a few single rooms and a lot of double rooms (note: with a double bed – you share this with someone else. Twin bed option is not available).
IMPORTANT NOTE: You DO NOT pay us for the hotel, but you pay the hotel separately on arrival. This might seem a hassle, but it’s done to save you money. Signup is binding nevertheless (if you do not show up, the hotel charges us the loss and we then charge you).
JOIN “THE BASTARD DINNER”!
Saturday evening you have the opportunity to participate in our large Bastard Dinner which (probably) will take place at restaurant “Noori” in Essen, since they have a super sushi and other Asian stuff buffet (ordered on an iPad) and can provide good quality foods and speedy service at the same time. It will be epic. Select this if you want to participate, so we know about how many seats we have to reserve (food and drinks are paid for separately).
MORE STUFF
The Bastard Text News Service: Sign up for updates with news, events, good “finds” at the fair and other info we find relevant.
It’s free and sent to you mobile during the trip (during the trip this will be our main way of communication and we will not use your number for anything else). Requires you fill out your phone number. We may use Telegram or a similar service again this year.
The Pap Van (150 DKK): If you buy an awful lot of games, it may be difficult to have them all in your flight luggage. Luckily, we have a solution if you live in Copenhagen. We drive a big van down there that you can fill with your purchased games. The van will then return to Copenhagen with all your board games, which you can pick up at Bastard Café from Tuesday after SPIEL. This costs 150 DKK per person using the service (the van needs rent and gasoline to function). We’ll supply you with a big handy cardboard box to have your games in.
Messe ticket: Due to the worldwide pandemic situation we do not yet know how the Messe tickets will be sold (only that they will only be sold as day tickets), so this year we are not buying them for you, but we will tell you as soon as we know how you can buy tickets. Make sure to buy them as soon as we inform you though, as ticket numbers may be limited this year (they otherwise never are)
Cosy small dinners: If you want you can sign up for having dinner with 9 others at a restaurant Wednesday and/or Thursday. Read more in this year’s trip.
The sign up form is in Danish. All details about the small dinners are subject to change (like in Denmark, the restaurant business is under a bit of pressure in the current situation).
The sign up form is in Danish. All details about the small dinners are subject to change (like in Denmark, the restaurant business is under a bit of pressure in the current situation).
All prices incl. Danish VAT and any possible profit from the tour go to buy shitloads of new games for the Bastard Café collection. And all the pizza we buy for you on our Friday event down there (more on that when we get closer to the event). Well, there’s actually no profit, since we use tons of hours organizing the trip, but what the hell. It’s fun.
Further questions? Send us an email and we will respond as quickly as we can: [email protected].