PLAY25 will take place in hybrid form, mainly on-site in Hamburg, but also online as a live stream and in our virtual festival location PLAYvalley.

PLAY25 is located at two locations this year:

• Urbaneo - Junges Architektur Zentrum (Am Strandkai 7, 20457 Hamburg): Urbaneo is the central location for PLAY25, with the festival spread across the entire building. The exhibition, the Creative Gaming Studio, and the festival headquarters are located here, among other things.

• NEW WORK (Am Strandkai 1, 20457 Hamburg): This is where our workshops, trainings, and stage program take place in the rooms of “Event Location - Spielbudenplatz” and “CoWorking Space - NEW WORK Pier.”

Both locations are in HafenCity and right next to each other.

You can visit and follow the program on-site, on our Twitch channel and in our virtual festival location, the PLAYvalley.

The PLAYvalley is our proven virtual festival location. It is a world on the platform Topia. The PLAYvalley is an interactive, digital space that can be used by many festival visitors at the same time. Among other things, visitors can follow the stream, take part in guided tours of the exhibition, or take the chance to meet the artists behind the works in the exhibition.

You can find the PLAYvalley via our homepage on the PLAY website and open it in your browser. No download is required to visit PLAYvalley, but a free account is necessary, and it is not available on mobile devices. More information about the technical requirements can be found here.

The following venues can be found in the PLAYvalley:

The Shrouded Stage
Our festival stage for the streams.

The Lost Lab
Where tools and results of the workshops can be found.

The Endless Plains
Here visitors will find our interactive exhibition.

Lookout Mountain
This is where the machinima cinema is located.

The Ruins of Restless Souls
Music plays here.

Shelter 21
This is the place where visitors arrive when entering PLAYvalley.

The Well of Wisdom
Our virtual festival headquarters, where visitors can find the schedule for PLAY25. This is also where virtual tours of PLAYvalley begin, which we provide upon request.

The Forest of Memories
Here you will find music and information about the theme "Take Care".

The Hidden Beach
Our beach where visitors can not only relax, but also take on secret level-up challenges.

The Lush Gardens
Our wild gardens in PLAYvalley offer many corners for public and private interaction.

The festival location at Urbaneo and NEW WORK can be visited at the following times:

Wednesday and Thursday (November 12 and 13): 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Friday (November 14): 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Saturday (November 15): 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

In PLAYvalley and on the Discord server, visitors can exchange ideas with other participants around the clock. In the Twitch chat, the audience can comment on live streams, ask questions and participate.

The festival headquarters at Urbaneo (right at the entrance) and at Discord 🏩festival-lobby can be reached personally during the opening hours mentioned above.

The festival headquarters is located in Urbaneo, right at the entrance, and can also be reached by mail via welcome@playfestival.de or Discord (#help-please).

The PLAY - Creative Gaming Festival is aimed at people aged 13 and older.

Some of our online activities require the use of Discord. For this chat service an age requirement of 16 years and older applies. Teenagers between 13 and 15 can therefore only use the service with the permission or accompaniment of a legal guardian.
For our virtual festival location, the PLAYvalley, we can not provide a general age rating. We therefore recommend that parents (or legal guardians) only explore the online content together with their children. If you have any questions, please contact the festival headquarters.

We will make recordings of some festival events. Screenshots or stills will also be taken, which will be used for our documentation and online presence as well as press work for the organizer jaf – Verein für medienpädagogische Praxis Hamburg e. V. and Initiative Creative Gaming e. V. If you take part in our online events with a webcam or microphone, please keep in mind that you can be seen or heard by other participants.

In addition, the festival will be documented in pictures and films. Photos and videos will then be used and published for press relations, the website and the documentation of the jaf – Verein für medienpädagogische Praxis Hamburg e.V. and Initiative Creative Gaming e.V.

In case you have any objections, please contact us at the festival headquarters on-site or in the virtual festival location, the PLAYvalley, or via Discord. If you have spotted content that features you, you can also contact info@playfestival.de after the festival.

Our privacy policy can be found here.

The vast majority of festival events are free of charge. The only exception is the school program, which costs €125 per class for workshops and €65 per class for a visit to the festival (including the exhibition and Creative Gaming Studio). If you would like to support us, we would be happy about a donation.

If you want to secure a seat in our workshops and trainings, email us in advance at welcome@playfestival.de or contact us via Discord (#🎫registrations).

Presence:

PLAY25 will take place in hybrid form, mainly on-site in Hamburg, but also online as a live stream and in our virtual festival location PLAYvalley.

PLAY25 is located at two locations this year:

• Urbaneo - Junges Architektur Zentrum (Am Strandkai 7, 20457 Hamburg): Urbaneo is the central location for PLAY25, with the festival spread across the entire building. The exhibition, the Creative Gaming Studio, and the festival headquarters are located here, among other things.

• NEW WORK (Am Strandkai 1, 20457 Hamburg): This is where our workshops, trainings, and stage program take place in the rooms of “Event Location - Spielbudenplatz” and “CoWorking Space - NEW WORK Pier.”

Both locations are in HafenCity and right next to each other.

Right at the entrance of Urbaneo, PLAY visitors will find the counter of the festival headquarters, where they can get information about the festival and an overview. If you are planning a visit with a larger group, please contact us in advance by mail at welcome[at]playfestival.de or via Discord (#🎫registrations), and we will be happy to welcome you personally.

Online:

In the Twitch stream you can watch our stage program online and join the discussion live via chat. During the festival you can also find the stream on our website and in the PLAYvalley.

The PLAYvalley is our virtual festival location. Here you can visit the festival from your couch!

To use the Twitch chat, an internet- and Twitch-enabled device and, if necessary, headphones or speakers as well as a Twitch account are required.
The PLAYvalley is accessible via the browser and a free account must be created.

Our workshops and trainings are held as on-site events only. We would like to enable the workshop leader and participants to engage with each other. Therefore, these places are limited and can be registered at welcome@playfestival.de or via Discord.

Any remaining seats will be allocated on site at short notice. If you are interested, please contact our festival headquarters on-site at Urbaneo or via Discord. Please also make sure to cancel your registration in order to free up your place if you are unable to attend.

About Urbaneo:

• Urbaneo is accessible via the main entrance, which has no steps, but the doors do not open automatically. If you need assistance, you can ring the bell.

• The building has two floors and a mezzanine level. An elevator on the ground floor provides access to the lower floor and first floor.

• The animation studio and the Machinima cinema are only accessible via stairs.

• The lower floor has a wheelchair-accessible restroom and a baby-changing area.

About NEW WORK: All PLAY Festival venues are at ground level and can be accessed without steps. More information about this festival venue will follow shortly.

Various platforms and online tools are in use for our program, so we are bound to the technical configurations of each platform. Some of the platforms are not accessible for some people with disabilities. However, we consider the topic as an important one and will do our best to gather more experience with time. If you are participating or would like to participate in the festival and notice limitations within the online program, we would like to hear from you so that we can assist you and consider it in the future as far as possible.

Yes, we have a code of conduct, which all festival participants should adhere to. Our code of conduct can be found here.

Please contact our press spokeswoman Helen Peetzen (info@peetzenkommunikation.de).

Our social media channels are:
Discord
Instagram
Bluesky
Flickr
YouTube
Twitch

The server is called PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival and can be found via this invitation link.

You can use the hashtag #PLAY25 or for the Creative Gaming Awards #CGawards in your posts.

Contact our festival headquarters by mail via welcome@playfestival.de. Of course we will also be happy to answer your questions on our social media channels (via direct message) or at our Discord server.