JUMP was an exciting, brand-new festival from Waltham Forest Council that considered the importance of play, for adults as well as children.
JUMP it was jam-packed with real world and digital work from local, national and international artists, game designers and community groups, much of it commissioned especially for the festival.
At the heart of the festival was the Waltham Forest Games Market on Saturday 25 September: a day-long event featuring performances, drop-in games including Verbal Kabaddi by Thukral & Tagra, hula-hooping with Maz, a penalty shoot-out with a twist, and stalls selling board games, role-playing games, piñatas, toys and food.
Other events included This City Stinks!, a brand new street game from Free Ice Cream that invited players to immerse yourselves in a story whilst following a smell trail and audio adventure, with plenty of surprises along the way.
Throughout the 10 days we also created brightly-coloured patterns in the streets with Helen Kwok and Chad Toprak’s Street Tape Games; discussed the relationship between craft and videogames with Craft Me A Gamer, a panel curated by Shanique Thompson; battled tongue twisters with Thukral & Tagra’s Verbal Kabaddi; created digital patterns with Rianna Suen’s Motif, and played a brand new game made on Roblox by Stanley Morse.
JUMP, which was developed by the Waltham Forest Council Culture Team, invited Londoners to join in from 17-26th September 2021 through video games, board games, playground games and more, in events held across Waltham Forest. In collaboration with a number of cultural partners including V&A Museum of Childhood and Leytonstone Loves Film, the festival was a largely free exploration of how play and games allow us to spend time together: creating, inventing, competing, jumping, racing, thinking and reinterpreting.
Credits
JUMP is a project by the Waltham Forest Culture Team, supported by:
Waltham Forest Lead: Abi Lemon
Creative Producer: Tracky Crombie
Curator: Holly Gramazio
Assistant Producer: Christine Lai
Community Engagement Producer: Kaveh Rahnama
R&D Associate: Shanique Thompson
Design & Direction: amad.studio
Website: Make A Spectacle
