4 July 2022

Vienna's youth game weeks 'Ferienspiel' (Holiday Game) focus in its 50 years anniversary edition on fun and practical skills concerning topics like sports and safety, creative design with upcycling materials, robot/computer coding, or painting

50 years ago in 1972, the initiative 'Ferienspiel' was started by the City of Vienna's Vice Mayor Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner as a programme for children and youth over the two school-free summer months July and August. The programme changed through the times with the interests of the participants and offers today additionally to fun and sports events like training courses for cycling safe in the traffic of a metropolitan city, robotics coding-workshops such as the event 'Robotikspass' (Robotic Fun) for programming self-driving routines of robots for mastering parcours or the course 'Sicherheitsheld_Innen & Roboter' (Safety Heroes & Robots) where participants will explore and actively develop robots for the prevention of dangerous situations.

Creativity and the reduction of waste as part of environmentally friendly production is in the center of events like 'Kostüme für Superheld_Innen' (Costumes for Superheroes) for the creation of a Superhero personality and the design of a matching outfit from upcycled material or at the workshops 'Nähen macht Spass' (Sewing is Fun) or 'Upcycling mit Textilien' where outworn and broken clothes will get a second life.

The well curated programme is carried out by the association WIENXTRA in cooperation with the City of Vienna, Department Education and Youth. It offers a wide range of events where children can explore their creative talents and will be supported with knowledge and skills - also in fine arts like at the outdoor painting event for nature studies 'Mal schnell ein Aquarell' at the garden Burggarten organized by specialists of the museum Albertina. The programme is published at ferienspiel.at.

Image: Ferienspiel. Photo: © WIENXTRA.