Game Festival

A school that becomes a town square

For one weekend a year, the Scuola Principe di Piemonte, part of the Istituto Comprensivo via Padre Semeria, stops being just a school building and transforms into a large neighborhood square. This is the Game Festival, organized by the parents' association ScuolaLiberaTutti together with the school community and a network of local associations. Courtyards, gyms, classrooms, and gardens are reorganized into thematic areas, welcoming children, teenagers, teachers, families, and curious visitors from the VIII Municipality of Rome, in the heart of the Lazio region, for two days.

Play as an educational tool

The idea driving the event is simple yet profound: play is not just a way to fill free time, but a legitimate form of learning. This is why the program is built in collaboration with educators, sports associations, play centers, and volunteers, alternating between free-play and guided activities. We play to learn how to be together, to respect rules, to lose, and to start over: a message the association has promoted since 2018, the year of the first edition.

What you will find at the festival

• Board and party games, with tables open on a continuous rotation and rules explained by volunteers
• Tournaments for different age groups, from chess and checkers to card and word games
• Creative workshops: puppet making, comics, life drawing, creative recycling, and crafts
• Movement and sports games in the courtyards: mini-basketball, rugby, sack races, tug-of-war, and obstacle courses
• Readings and storytelling, including in English, for the little ones
• Performances and demonstrations curated by neighborhood associations and the students themselves
• Toy exchange area, to give a second life to items no longer in use

A community project

The Game Festival is part of the open schools initiative promoted by Rome Capital: the school building remains available to the community even outside school hours, becoming a cultural and social hub. The entire organizational machine relies on the volunteering of parents, who divide into working groups in the months leading up to the event to handle setup, hospitality, communication, refreshments, and safety. Sports and cultural associations from the Ostiense-Garbatella district contribute with their own staff, bringing disciplines and languages into the school that children can try for free.

Who it is for

The event is aimed at a wide age range, roughly from 4 to 13 years old, but the free-play areas and board game tables work well for teenagers and adults too. Some workshops have limited spots and require booking or on-site registration: it is advisable to arrive a few minutes before the time indicated in the program. The rest of the activities are open access.

The surrounding neighborhood

The school is located along the via Ostiense axis, a stone's throw from Garbatella and the Roma Tre university campus, in an area that has become one of the most vibrant urban laboratories in the capital in recent years. Visitors from outside the neighborhood can combine their visit to the festival with a walk to the Centrale Montemartini, the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, or through the popular housing lots of Garbatella, among the most photographed in Rome.

Information and updates

The full program, with a map of the areas and the schedule for each activity, is published in PDF format on the association's website in the weeks leading up to the event. For information, collaboration proposals, or bookings, you can write to the address dedicated to the festival.