Participants: 8 teams - festival visitors
Steps along the way: 10
Approximate distance: 1.5 km
Approximate duration: 1-1.5 hours
Language of the game: Bulgarian
Organized by: Inner Voice and Zagrazhden Film Fest
During the first weekend of July 2025, the third edition of the Zagrazhden Film Fest (ZFF) took place - an independent festival organized by volunteers in the village of Zagrazhden, Smolyan region. The main mission of the festival is to develop the village and turn it into a cultural destination through interesting activities aimed at young people interested in cinema and unusual experiences.
In this edition, on July 5, 2025, Inner Voice participated in the festival with the game “Baba Yaga’s Potion” - a challenge for the mind and senses, in which participants had to discover secret ingredients, assemble magical recipes, and mix the potion of excitement.
ZFF is an event that takes place in a small mountainous village, where the classic entertainment and infrastructure of big cities are lacking. This posed challenges in creating an activity that would be:
- accessible and understandable to all festival visitors, regardless of their experience with similar games
- integrated into the atmosphere of the village, using its streets, signs, and buildings
- interesting and dynamic enough to fit into the program of such a festival and hold the audience’s attention
The organizers aimed to make the game an additional element of the program and offer participants a new way of interacting with the location.
Inner Voice’s team prepared and implemented:
- a script created especially for the festival - “Baba Yaga’s Potion” created a new way of entertainment and lifted the atmosphere of the event
- 10 riddles located at key locations in the village, which guided the teams along a specific route
- physical props developed for the event, which added an element of surprise and interactivity
- an approach that made the game accessible to all festival participants without the need for prior preparation or specific skills
The game took place on July 5, 2025, as part of the festival program. Eight teams (about 35 people) participated, representing approximately half of all visitors to the event at that time.
The format challenged participants to explore the village, interact with each other, and go through a series of logical and sensory challenges while gathering the ingredients for the magic potion. The competitive atmosphere complemented the festival program and added more dynamics to the experience.
After the game, the results were as follows:
- The game engaged a significant portion of the festival audience - 8 teams, which at that point in the program was about half of the attendees.
- Participants shared that the game allowed them to disconnect from their daily lives and immerse themselves completely in the scenario and experience.
- The organizers reported positive feedback - both for the atmosphere that the game created and for the added value to the festival program.
- The event proved that interactive experiences can be successfully implemented even in small towns, contributing to their cultural development.
The partnership between Inner Voice and Zagrazhden Film Fest showed that interactive games can be an excellent tool for enriching cultural events, regardless of their scale and location.
With “Baba Yaga’s Potion”, participants had the opportunity to get to know a small place in a new way - through fun and entertainment. This not only contributed to a more colorful festival program, but also to positive energy and strengthening the community.
The results demonstrate that with the right approach, games can be created anywhere - even in small towns and villages, where such initiatives give the most cultural value.
