The BGF

The Brussels Games Festival (BGF) aims to promote gaming in all its forms and, in particular, to raise awareness of the practice of gaming for all citizens regardless of age, gender, social condition or ethnic origin. Organized on the last weekend of August, it offers to the inhabitants of Brussels and to the game lovers moments of meetings and sharing. There are board games, party games, figurine games, educational games, wooden games, role-playing games, live-action role-playing games, world games, escape games, adapted games proposed by professionals, but also tournaments, conferences, a game exchange and a protozone.

Game(s) & Culture

Each year, since 2016, the festival's culture division has chosen a theme and set up dynamics of cultural mediation, lifelong education and social cohesion. After "accessibility to and through play" in 2016, "diversity issues" in 2017, play as a tool for education and knowledge acquisition in 2018, ecology and sustainable development in 2019, this year's theme is "Game, media and transmedia".

The game is now told through multiple media. Do the image and practice of games evolve over time and in different media? How can the gaming experience be extended by new technologies? Does this make gaming more or less accessible? To what extent is gaming a means of communication or just a promotional tool? The BGF team tries to provide some answers to these questions.

A publication : BGF Mag

The BGF Mag is a magazine of reflection on the game and its impact on society, published by the Culture Division. Each issue includes a series of articles related to the BGF's annual theme.

N°5 (in French) :

Past issues :

Vignettes and video clips

To highlight the Brussels game actors (creators, publishers, game libraries, game associations...), the label "Made in Brussels" was created in 2015. In 2018, leaving the limits of the Region, the scope is expanded to personalities and institutions based in Flanders and Wallonia with a new label: "Made in Belgium".

This year, the vignettes are being streamed live during the festival on the twitch channel(Opens in a new window). If you missed them, just follow the festival's social networks to be kept up to date on their replay.

For vignettes from previous years, just go to the Youtube playlist(Opens in a new window).

An exhibition

Each year, we propose to discover in detail an initiative related to the chosen theme. In 2021, we suggest you (re)discover the game "Les Poilus" by Juan Rodriguez and Fabien Riffaud, illustrated by Tignous. If we are not here facing a purely transmedia creation, we can talk about crossmedia thanks to the illustrations of the comic artist and press cartoonist.

Lectures and discussions

Spaces of exchange and sharing are organized, with the participation of professionals in the field, creators, specialists in science and technology of the game, cultural mediators ... These meetings will take place on our Twitch channel and will be broadcast afterwards on our Youtube channel.