Combine street games, garnished with ancient traditions, mix all up with workshops, ateliers, conferences, add a touch of dances and live musics from Italy and France, mix all together with thousands of people and let sit in a beautiful historical city. Here you have the receipt for a unique event, able to bring together people from all nationalities and ages under the banner of games, fun, folklore and legends.
The most captivating thing is that such a combination exists, and it has a name: Tocatì festival, the International Festival of Street Games,
The Festival, in its 17th edition, took place from September 12th to 15th in the historical city of Verona, organized by AGA, the Association of Ancient Games and this year its receipt was spiced up with a hint of…participative democracy!In fact, being the latter a member of our network, we jointly decided to seize the opportunity and to organize a day of activities designed to our members and their families: a great deal combining networking with entertainment.

The chosen date was Saturday, September 14th. The day started at the Museum of Natural History, with a reunion of ALDA members from Italy, followed by a conference animated by Imislawa Gorska, Francesco Zarzana, Maurizio Camin, Eva Trentin and Marco Boaria. After the opening and presentation by Ms. Gorska, Vice President of ALDA Governing Board, which also Brough the greetings from the President Mr. Oriano Otocan and the Secretary-General Ms. Antonella Valmorbida, Mr Zarzana, President of Progettarte Association and member of the Governing Board, spoke about the importance of culture as element promoting dialogue, which in turn is the essence of every participatory experience and distinctive feature of active citizenship. Mr. Camin, Director of Trentino con I Balcani Association (ATB) and member of the Board, moved the attention to the Balkans as an example of decentralized cooperation: an important highlight to remember where ALDA comes from and the present situation of the region, too often forgotten by media.

Recalling the origin of ALDA, the discussion moved to one of the key events on the agenda fort the next year: the celebrations for ALDA 20th Anniversary. While detailed information about the General Assembly will be disclosed in the following months, Ms. Trentin, Membership Officer, presented new initiatives we have started to carrying out in order to promote and enhance our members and network, among which we mention the much expected “ALDA Talks” – a series of thematic high-level webinars thought to spread the unique competences of our members.
The meeting was closed with the intervention of Mr. Boaria, ALDA+ Ceo and Head of R&D Unit, who explained the whole set of services for our members.

The day continued with a guided tour through the city and the Festival, open to members’ families and children, while the afternoon was dedicated to an. Open event held in the Civic Library of Verona: a World Café titled “Active citizenship vs. Public spaces”. The 30 participants who joined us at 3pm were organized around tables of discussions: four “stops” to talk about 4 aspects of active participation to make our cities more welcoming place to spend time in. Every table was animated by a staff member of ALDA, Sofia, Lavinia, Elisabetta and Francesco. The outcome of the almost two hours of conversation has overcome all expectations: a warm atmosphere of positive exchange was established, and all the participants enjoyed contributing to the process. The results of the action are a bunch of great ideas on the use of public existing spaces in a most fructuous way benefiting the citizens and promoting culture and socialization. ..We will surely take them into consideration for our future project, and we don’t exclude the birth of a working group to implement a couple of ideas!

Combine street games, garnished with ancient traditions, mix all up with workshops, ateliers, conferences, add a touch of dances and live musics from Italy and France, mix all together with thousands of people and let sit in a beautiful historical city. Here you have the receipt for a unique event, able to bring together people from all nationalities and ages under the banner of games, fun, folklore and legends.
The most captivating thing is that such a combination exists, and it has a name: Tocatì festival, the International Festival of Street Games,
The Festival, in its 17th edition, took place from September 12th to 15th in the historical city of Verona, organized by AGA, the Association of Ancient Games and this year its receipt was spiced up with a hint of…participative democracy!In fact, being the latter a member of our network, we jointly decided to seize the opportunity and to organize a day of activities designed to our members and their families: a great deal combining networking with entertainment.

The chosen date was Saturday, September 14th. The day started at the Museum of Natural History, with a reunion of ALDA members from Italy, followed by a conference animated by Imislawa Gorska, Francesco Zarzana, Maurizio Camin, Eva Trentin and Marco Boaria. After the opening and presentation by Ms. Gorska, Vice President of ALDA Governing Board, which also Brough the greetings from the President Mr. Oriano Otocan and the Secretary-General Ms. Antonella Valmorbida, Mr Zarzana, President of Progettarte Association and member of the Governing Board, spoke about the importance of culture as element promoting dialogue, which in turn is the essence of every participatory experience and distinctive feature of active citizenship. Mr. Camin, Director of Trentino con I Balcani Association (ATB) and member of the Board, moved the attention to the Balkans as an example of decentralized cooperation: an important highlight to remember where ALDA comes from and the present situation of the region, too often forgotten by media.

Recalling the origin of ALDA, the discussion moved to one of the key events on the agenda fort the next year: the celebrations for ALDA 20th Anniversary. While detailed information about the General Assembly will be disclosed in the following months, Ms. Trentin, Membership Officer, presented new initiatives we have started to carrying out in order to promote and enhance our members and network, among which we mention the much expected “ALDA Talks” – a series of thematic high-level webinars thought to spread the unique competences of our members.
The meeting was closed with the intervention of Mr. Boaria, ALDA+ Ceo and Head of R&D Unit, who explained the whole set of services for our members.

The day continued with a guided tour through the city and the Festival, open to members’ families and children, while the afternoon was dedicated to an. Open event held in the Civic Library of Verona: a World Café titled “Active citizenship vs. Public spaces”. The 30 participants who joined us at 3pm were organized around tables of discussions: four “stops” to talk about 4 aspects of active participation to make our cities more welcoming place to spend time in. Every table was animated by a staff member of ALDA, Sofia, Lavinia, Elisabetta and Francesco. The outcome of the almost two hours of conversation has overcome all expectations: a warm atmosphere of positive exchange was established, and all the participants enjoyed contributing to the process. The results of the action are a bunch of great ideas on the use of public existing spaces in a most fructuous way benefiting the citizens and promoting culture and socialization. ..We will surely take them into consideration for our future project, and we don’t exclude the birth of a working group to implement a couple of ideas!