On Saturday 4th August, we hosted the first ever Berlin Slowlympics—and boy was it a lot of fun.
We were anxious about the weather forecasts, half of which promised rain and thunderstorms, but as it turned out we had the opposite “problem”: hot, blazing sun almost all day long.
Thankfully there were lots of beer tents and shade umbrellas around, though most of the guests and participants seemed content to sprawl out on the sidelines and enjoy the rays (including many Brits who kept up with tradition by forgetting sun cream).
The games got underway late since most teams failed, inevitably, to meet the 11am team briefing appointment. Extra points were accordingly given for lateness, plus an additional two points for one team who got entirely lost (it is a big park though).
There were a lot of hangovers present, not least amongst the Slow Travel Berlin team, who were up until the early hours “testing” beer and inventing last minute games such as the Horizontal No Hands Muffin Eating competition and the One-Legged Flummi Keepie-Uppie With Shoe contest.
In the end, all 18 teams did show (we think) and it’s really down to their enthusiasm, great costumes and consistent sillyness that the day was so much fun.
So a BIG thanks to everyone who entered plus a massive congratulations to the Top 3 teams:
Tempel Sloths (1st)
Auslandish (2nd)
Sloths & Snails (3rd)
A huge Vielen Dank too to all the local companies who were kind enough to give us so many nice prizes that we managed to give every single contestant something for their efforts. When you consider there were almost 100 contestants that’s quite something!
Big shout outs to the refs and fellow organisers on the day too — Zaren “scoremeister” Courtenay, Brian “trilingual” Melican and Kevin “sailor” Braddock—and to Barbara Braun, who worked hard behind the scenes to get us some prizes but sadly couldn’t make the day. And to Horizontereignis for creating some great and special activities for the (actual) kids present.
The lovely photos below are courtesy of Maia Beyrouti.
To read more about the day and/or see more photos, check out these articles in the Berliner Zeitung (German) and the Tagesspiegel (English and German).