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In the Footsteps of Darwin
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Festival
2024
Rules assistance for Festival
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2–4 players
- 20 min
- 8+
- Complexity 1.3/5
For 2 players
Rules assistant for Festival
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Festival is a board game released in 2024 for 2–4 players, 20 minutes per game, and ages 8 and up. It was designed by Grégory Grard and its main mechanics are Tile Placement, End Game Bonuses, and Square Grid.
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About the game
The great cities of the world are challenging each other to present the most beautiful festival imaginable. The closing fireworks ceremony, held in all cities, will be the final rose in the crown of the festivities. In Festival, you select tiles to place on your tableau to create the most impressive and beautiful fireworks display possible...and of course, score the most points! You have two stacks of tiles in front of you, with each neighboring player having access to the stack closest to them; tiles come in four colors and four firework designs. Four stacks of objective cards are in the middle of the table, along with four crowd-pleaser tiles. On a turn, take a tile from the top of either stack and place it in the 3x3 grid on your board, whether on the ground level or on an existing stack. Alternatively, you can take an objective card from the top of its stack and place it to the left of your board. To end your turn, see whether you've satisfied any of your objectives or the crowd-pleasers that are available to everyone. Move each completed objective to the right of your board. Whenever a player has completed six objectives or a stack of firework tiles has run out, the game concludes at the end of the round. In addition to scoring completed objectives and claimed crowd-pleasers, you have a target color and firework type depicted on your board. Each tile of this color or type at the top of a stack on your board is worth as many points as the number of tiles in that stack. If a tile matches both color and type, you score it twice. Can you shoot the right fireworks to victorious heights?
Categories
Mechanics
Designers
Publishers
- Scorpion Masqué
- Hachette Boardgames UK
Questions and answers
Festival supports 2–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Festival is 20 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Festival for ages 8 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Festival has a complexity rating of 1.3 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Festival belongs to these categories: Abstract Strategy and Puzzle. Its main mechanics are Tile Placement, End Game Bonuses, and Square Grid. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Festival are: Grégory Grard. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Festival as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.