Spiel

Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day boardgame trade fair which is also open to the public held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen. With 1,021 exhibitors from 50 nations (in 2016) SPIEL is the worldwide biggest fair for boardgames. Many new games are released at the fair each year, especially (but not exclusively) European-style board games.

At SPIEL boardgames are offered which are hard to be found in retail because a lot of international and small exhibitors present their products. While the prices for buying the games at the fair do not tend to be significantly lower than those in retail, the games are typically available sooner than in regular boardgame shops, come with promo stuff (mostly extra cards or tokens with a few more game mechanics, but also T-shirts and similar merchandise) and it is an occasion where passionate board-gamers can meet and chat with game designers, illustrators and famous game reviewers.

The fair began in 1983.