Music has been a love of mine forever. I remember lying on my bed when I was seven or eight years old, listening to FM radio and later being enthralled by music videos, watching when my family first got cable in 1984. My first concert was seeing Anthrax opening for Iron Maiden in 1991, and my first festival was Lollapalooza in 1994 (Primus Sucks! (IYKYK)).
All that to say, that when someone posted a link for the Fest Season kickstarter in BGQ’s Discord, it was an instaback for me. Fest Season was designed by Luis Villegas, released by Green Astra games and plays one to five players aged 14 and up. It plays in 25 minutes (or about 1 and a half times through In-a-Gadda-da-Vida) per player.
Gameplay Overview:
There’s a lot to cover, so this overview will only touch on the core gameplay loop.
On a player’s turn, they take one of three actions, with each of those actions having either a mono or stereo version. The mono version gives the active player an action, while the stereo usually gives all the other players a little benefit. With each action, the action’s fader is moved up one position for that action, also potentially providing a free benefit.
Construction Action
• Mono – Build an amenity. Some amenities have location requirements for placement.
• Stereo – Build a stage of any size, placing it so it’s touching one of the stage locations on your player board. All other players collect their current ticket price in revenue.
Projects
• Mono – Complete a project. Many projects have prerequisites that need to be met before completing.
• Stereo – Sell projects.
Booking Artists
• Mono – Book an artist. Raise the volume for the artist’s genre. Artists also have requirements that need to be met.
• Stereo – Collect money. The active player collects money equal to the sum of their attendance and ticket prices. All other players collect money equal to their ticket price.
When any of the action faders reach the top of their track, they reset, providing benefits such as paying out based on your current sponsorship level, and then the master volume fader increases. The game ends when the master volume fader hits the top.
Two other things to highlight are in-game objectives that will score points, as well as a hype track that gives benefits as you move up. If that ever maxes out, collect that last benefit, and then it’ll reset so you can keep earning those sweet incremental rewards.
Gameplay Experience:
Like attending a large music festival, Fest Season can be a little intimidating to get into despite there being only a handful of actions to worry about. One challenge is that you’re constantly in this push and pull of “I need money” and then blowing it all to snag some project or artist. Essentially, you need stages, bands, and amenities. Projects are tools that get you benefits like stages and bands (as well as endgame points if winning is a thing for you).
The stereo actions feel like throwaway actions until you recognize it’s a way of refreshing the board with things to buy, getting that much-needed cash, or building a stage to put bands on. Throughout the game, almost every action gives you a little benefit. The trick is comboing all of those little benefits into massive turns. As things combo together, you get to pick the order you activate the extra zero-cost actions, potentially unlocking even more actions. The game came with tokens to remind you of where you still have things to do, and they’re quite helpful.
The downside is that while you’re invested in doing your four actions, the rest of the table is sitting there staring at you like you just bit the head off a bat, although hopefully more bored than horrified. I’m not here to judge the snacks you keep around your gaming table, but if you’re serving bats, I’m also guessing you’re playing with the heavy metal genre.
While the box says 25 minutes per player, I found that’s understating it. This is a pretty long game, especially with thoughtful or analysis-prone players. My solo plays have easily been over an hour, and at two players, the games were around two. Part of that is from needing to often reference the player aid, which is packed with tons of iconography, so familiarity may foster alacrity.
It’s satisfying to build your own festival with its own layout, amenities, and unique musical lineup.
Fest Season’s whole production, unlike many beige euros, has an evocative theme that puts music center stage. The main board looks like a sound mixing board, some cards and player components come in cardboard road cases, and each player’s component color is a different instrument. Even though each band has its own requirements feels thematic as the bigger stars need the big stage at night, while smaller bands are opening acts. All the band names are variants of real-life artists like Crimson 5, AD/CD, Orange Day, and Copper Maiden. I’m assuming that’s for copyright reasons, but it’s discernible to fans.
There are eight music genres in the game: Rap/Hip-Hop, EDM, Alternative, Rock, Metal, Heavy Metal, Punk, and Pop. At first, I was puzzled by two categories for metal, but it makes sense as there’s a clear divide between old school 70’s and 80’s heavy metal and 90’s and beyond metal. I’m assuming fans of other genres could build an argument for additional genres as well. *Pushes glasses up and prepares to read a short manifesto on separating punk rock, pop punk, and hardcore punk.*
Lower player count games use fewer amenities, genres, and spots on the action sliders to keep things tight, with more bands possibly making objectives harder to score. To expedite setup, I put each genre in its own baggie.
There’s also a whole second booklet of modules and variants (including solo play and variable player boards). There’s minimal player interaction besides pushing the volume higher, so you can’t afford to book the Pixees. Hate drafting is possible, but it’s more likely a coincidence that someone will take that project or artist you were eyeing or snag an objective first.
If I have a complaint with the production, I wish the sponsorship token wasn’t the guitar pick shape because, while cool, it was easy to knock around. The tracks on the mainboard holding the unlock tokens better than just resting on the top would be another small quality of life improvement.
Final Thoughts:
People are often predisposed to like something because they bought it. This is one of the heaviest games I own, and I love Fest Season despite not usually being a fan of brain-melting games. I want it to be reprinted so more people can experience it. I’d also love an expansion with more genres, new amenities, new mechanics, and/or licensed band names.
Final Score: 4.5 Stars – Fest Season gets you Coming in Like a Wrecking Ball and Rockin’ like a Hurricane as you build awesome music festivals.
Hits:
• So much to do with just three basic actions and lots of incremental rewards
• Big combos are fun to execute
• Strong theme and building up your own festival board is rewarding
Misses:
• Combos are less fun when you’re watching Combo McChaining-Actions across the table thoughtfully plug through half a dozen steps
• More Iconography than most modern battle vests
Source: Board Game Quest
