Description
*****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.
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 30-50 euro, ‘old games’ (meaning not from this year) at 5-40 euro.
Rich opportunities to eat, play games, crawl pubs and have fun with your fellow travelers at our Motel One residence.
See more on SPIEL’s web page or SPIEL 2024‘s Facebook event (not yet).
*****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 the Bastard Tours: Essen Spiel 2024 Facebook page. If you find cheap flights, please share them.
If you would like to travel with other Bastards, “The Official Bastard departures which the majority of the people take” is this:
CPH -> DUS (SAS): Wed. Oct 02 – 2024 departure 17:00
DUS -> CPH (SAS): Sun. Oct. 06 – 2024 departure 16:05
The return price for this is at the moment (APR 2024) from 1716 DKK. It may sell out, and there are probably cheaper options.
It’s also possible to travel by other planes (of course), by train (book via Deutsche Bahn’s own website, it’s usually cheaper than DSB), private car or bus.
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 2024 fair opens on Thursday the 03 October and closes on Sunday 06 October. 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 and we are very welcome there. 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. Also, to get the prices we have secured you stay there for at least Thursday to Sunday. 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 for the cost of the room.
JOIN “THE BASTARD DINNER”!
Saturday evening you have the opportunity to participate in our large Bastard Dinner which (probably) will take place at restaurant Mongos (Mongolian barbecue). 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).
The Bastard Telegram Chat: Sign up for updates with news, events, good “finds” at the fair and other info we find relevant. It requires that you install Telegram on your mobile and make an account, but you can always delete everything afterwards. During the trip this will be our main way of communication. Sign up for this and we will send you a link to the Bastard Spiel Telegram Chat when it’s ready.
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 Valby from Tuesday the 11 October. This costs 150 DKK per person using this service (we rent the van and it needs gasoline to function). We’ll supply you with a big handy cardboard box to have your games in.
Messe ticket: We do not buy these for you, but you have to get them yourself via the SPIEL ESSEN site. They need names and other info. It should be fairly straightforward (it usually is) and ticket sales usually opens in June/July’ish.
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 and sign up here.
Deadline for signing up for these dinners is Friday the 27th September. 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).
Deadline for signing up for these dinners is Friday the 27th September. 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).
Friday Night is Pizza Night: We’ve booked the conference room at Motel One Friday evening, where you are more than welcome to pop by for a pizza slice and a look at whatever games we’ve gotten so far, with options to play them as well of course.
All prices incl. Danish VAT and any possible profit from the tour go to buy new games for the Bastard Café collection. And all the pizza we buy for you on our Friday event down there. 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].