Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Festival is a game for 2-4 players where you’re placing firework tiles, each in one of four different colors on your player board, to have them match the patterns shown on objective scoring cards. Have the highest score at the end and you’re the winner! Festival is a quick, colorful game, but is it worth playing? Read on to find out.
Lighting the Fuse
You’ll start by giving each player a player board in one of the game’s four colors. Each side represents a famous world city, so choose your favorite and place it in front of you.
Then take the 7-point scoring card for your color and choose one of the two patterns, one on each side, that you think you’ll be able to replicate most easily. Place it to the left of your board.
Each player then takes the stack of 16 round tiles with their matching color on the back and places them, firework side up, to their left. In a two-player game, players can choose tiles from either stack. In a three- or four-player game, you can only choose tiles from the stacks to your left and right.
Take the four large Crowd Pleaser (bonus) point makers and choose a side for each one. Set these out in easy reach of all players. Shuffle the deck of patterned objective cards and divide them into four face-up piles of seven cards each and set them next to the Crowd Pleaser tokens.
To play Festival, you do one of two things on a turn: take a firework tile and place it on your board, or take an objective card.
Objective cards determine which firework tile you’ll want to choose and where you’ll want to place it on your board. These feature different patterns, each with a specific layout. Some show a pattern of colors, meaning the type of firework on the tiles doesn’t matter. Others have a specific firework pattern, meaning any color will work. Others indicate a specific color next to a specific type of firework. The easier patterns score you 3 points, while the more complex score you 5 points.
When you claim an objective card, you place it to the left of your board. (You can only have up to six objective cards to the left of your board at a time.) When you place a tile that completes an objective, you move that card to the right side of your board to indicate that it will score at the end of the game.
Also, whenever you place a tile, check to see if you’ve completed any of the Crowd Pleaser objectives. If so, take that marker and move it to the right side of your board.
A game of Festival ends when either one player has scored their sixth objective card or when any one stack of firework tiles runs out.
From there, tally up the points on your scored objective cards and any Crowd Pleasers. Then add in any bonus points shown on your board for tiles matching the color of your board and/or the firework shape listed. The player with the most points wins.
Sputtering With Anticipation
Festival looks inviting on the table. The simple firework illustrations against a black background are unique and distinctive. There is a movement implied in the artwork, which draws you into the game.
Importantly, despite its use of bold colors, Festival is very colorblind friendly. Each of the four colors is associated with a specific shape (blue: circle, yellow: star, red: triangle, or green: X), and that shape is clearly displayed on each tile and card where that color appears. This is well integrated into the designs that the people I played with were surprised when I pointed out the corresponding shapes to them.
Only to Fizzle Out
Despite this, I have several issues with Festival, starting with the player boards. They’re a thin cardstock that feels almost like an afterthought. Add to that the two sides of each player board are, game-wise, identical. Each side of the board represents a different city, but there is no other difference.
After we finished our first game, I discovered the components don’t quite fit into the box as I expected them to. There are six cardboard channels in the box, and only the objective cards fit properly. The round tiles have to lean to one side, as do the Crowd Pleaser tokens.
With only 16 tiles to each pile, you’re likely to take fewer than 16 turns before the game ends. With nine places for tiles on your player board, this felt far too short for everyone I played with. If the tiles were half as thick and there were twice as many of them, you could have a longer, more competitive game with additional scoring opportunities.
Unfortunately, Festival fell flat with each of the different groups of people I played it with. No one was interested in playing it a second time, which sums the game up well.
Festival might make for a good family game, especially for those with young children. The colors, shapes, and pattern-matching aspects of the game would make for good reinforcement of those skills.
Apart from that, sadly, Festival was a dud.
Festival details
- Designer: Grégory Grard
- Artists: Melody Leblond
- Publishers: Hachette Boardgames UK, Scorpion Masqué
- Release Date: 2024
- Player count : 2 - 4
- Age range : 8+
- Time range : 20 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Contracts, End Game Bonuses, Grid Coverage, Layering, Market, Open Drafting, Pattern Building, Square Grid, Tile Placement
- BGG Geek Rating: 6.39571 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.0.
- More articles about Festival.
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