For the past four years, we’ve been regular visitors of the Spillfest, a sportive event organised by the Luxembourgish Olympic Committee. The idea behind this colossal undertaking is to familiarise the general public with sports they might have otherwise ignored the existence of but underneath it all, it is a really nice social event to promote a healthy lifestyle with the help of innumerous local sport organisations and associations. Throughout the years, my children have thus come into contact with rugby and baseball, cricket, wrestling, different martial arts, Zumba, triathlon, not to forget water-gun shooting, and much more. It’s a fun family-friendly day spent getting some much-needed fresh air and some even-more-needed exercise.
At the entrance you get a card with 15 slots to fill with stamps you get after trying out each of the many sports offered. 12 stamps are enough to grant you a T-shirt and we always make sure to jealously guard our cards hanging around our necks, and to get those 12 stamps. After all these years, each of us has his very own private collection of Spillfest tops.
This year, we started (and ended) our Spillfest journey with the triathlon, where the children had to show off different skills. It’s a staple in our yearly expeditions, into which Marko and me usually join as well.
As a true KarateKid, Jakob could, obviously, not skip jiu-jitsu or judo, where even Mia joined in for a short while,
nor could he pass the opportunity to wrestle a fully grown man and knock him down, the tiny human that he is. It was hilarious and heart-warming seeing a complete stranger coaching this little cub of mine how to defeat him and than actually letting him do so.
After all this Jakob galore, you might think poor Mia was deprived of all the fun, but no! She wheeled her heart out at the gym stand and never wanted to leave again, rolled around in the soft-play tent, actually enjoyed playing a football match and tried out a couple more sports she never had before. Unlike the previous years, though, there was no aerobics or any type of exercise accompanied by music, which she missed greatly.
While queueing for cricket (and eventually giving up) we met a friend who volounteerd at the stand – this is what Spillfest is also about; bumping into people you haven’t seen in a while, catching up and setting future dates. It’s turning up with friends and letting children run around playing man-size chess while you sip on some champagne in the gorgeous Lux sun. Because yes, in the local culture even at a family-friendly sports event, mainly intended for children there will be champagne. And beer, for the less sophisticated. 😉
There was some face-painting thrown in between for fun, turning Mia into an ice queen and Jakob into Batman.
Our lake day was, as always, fantastic. It left us drained but happy and contented, looking forward to the following one. See you next year!