ACTIVITIES of TOCATÌ A SHARED PROGRAM FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF TRADITIONAL GAMES AND SPORTS

Local events

The Tocatì program includes many initiatives at local level, carried out by the communities of practitioners, key actors in the safeguarding of this living heritage. This is therefore the main safeguard measure: keep playing!

Practice, revitalize, spread traditional games and sports in the partnership countries and beyond!

☞ In Italy, AGA, leader of the Tocatì programme, promotes traditional games and encourages the transformation of public spaces through local, provincial, regional, national and international events that involve a growing number of Italian and European ludic communities. Among these events, the Veronese S-cianco Championship, now in its 23th edition, is of significant importance at a local level. Every year, the event involves around twenty representatives of the province of Verona who compete in S-cianco (Lippa): a stick game that is also the founding myth of the Associazione Giochi Antichi. In fact, AGA was founded in 2002 precisely to recover and promote this practice, which now, given its international diffusion, has established itself as a tool for dialogue between cultures and international cooperation.

☞ A team of players from Cyprus took part in the Lippa tournament and at the same time demonstrated “Ligrin” to the audience, encouraging them to take part in the game. Ligrin is a traditional game of Cyprus, which has many similarities with Lippa and is inscribed on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, since 2017 by the Folklore Association of KTIMA.

☞ Throughout these years, Croatia with IPS has organized educational workshops in schools, traditional tournaments on the occasion of folk festivals, symposiums for documentation and research purposes, and since 2016 has organized an “International pljočke Festival” to promote the game in Croatia and Europe.

☞ IPS and AGA began their cooperation in 2015 at Tocatì. We immediately noticed the compatibility of the perception of common goals and continued to meet, exchange experiences and joint activities.

☞ The FALSAB Confederation is present during the European events organized by its counterparts by participating, as regularly as possible, in festivals, conferences and other informal exchanges of experiences. These moments are very important for the development of practices. Each one can gain the experience of the other and thus show their territory, their culture, practices and traditions with benevolence and friendship. The tourism of traditional practices, like other structures, have created museums, festivals, such as AGA with the Tocatì festival.

☞ Quilles au Maillet: Discovery and promotion of traditional games of Gascony. With animation actions and discovery of our heritage with the traditional games Quilles au Maillet, 6, 9 and 8 in the context of parties, meetings, at the request of various partners or associations in the image of AGA with the Tocatì festival.

☞ Participation of groups of TGS practitioners at Tocatì, coordinated by VLAS, and/or contributions of experts from Flanders to the Tocatì symposium.

The partners of the Tocatì program develop activities in the educational field, and collaborate in the context of European projects dedicated to Education, such as the recently concluded Erasmus+ Opportunity project.

In Italy and Europe, the Tocatì program promotes a constant dialogue between traditional ludic communities, with which it develops formal and informal education activities, aimed at sharing good practices for the safeguarding of Traditional Games and Sports.

As part of the Tocatì program, AGA offers in Italy, in collaboration with Italian ludic communities, educational workshops aimed at primary and secondary schools, with the aim of supporting the transmission of traditional games, promoting outdoor play and encouraging intercultural dialogue. Educational activities take place both in schools and at the headquarters of Associazione Giochi Antichi.

AGA is developing, with the contribution of professionals from various disciplinary fields, training courses aimed at teachers, university students, associations and administrations, on the themes of Traditional Games and Sports, the protection of intangible heritage and the organisation of cultural festivals as safeguarding measures.

Quilles au Maillet: development of traditional games among young people. In order to publicize and develop the practice of the Traditional Sports Games of Gascony: in schools, TAPs, Recreation Centers and specialized establishments: – introducing children to these “sports” that require skill, strength and ability: – also making them discover the richness of this heritage practiced for generations: – training teachers and animators on site. In collaboration with the schools or Recreation Centers that request us, we intervene to train teachers, animators and children; – developing teaching materials suitable for children (files and DVDs) that teachers and facilitators can rely on; – making Quilles games available free of charge in schools or Recreation Centers that request them.

Research and documentation activities developed within the Tocatì program, in Italy and in the partner countries, are diversified. In Verona, Casa Colombare, home of AGA, was born as a community-based place of research and documentation on traditional games in 2007, inside the city park Le Colombare: it is a permanent laboratory for planning activities, network animation, research and documentation.

Regular meetings are held here with the network of play communities at local, national and international level.

Expanded and renovated between 2023 and 2025, Casa Tocatì will reopen its doors in 2026.

Casa Tocatì is a place of meeting, memory, creativity, transmission in a word safeguard of Traditional Games and Sports, recognized by UNESCO as elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. It dialogues with the other centres of the Tocatì program, located in the 5 countries of the partnership.

In all the countries of the partnership, thematic parks are developing  highly topical experiences.

In Belgium, Sportimonium was the first thematic centre in Europe devoted to the sports and games. In Italy, in July 2019, with its own project already approved by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, AGA allowed the Municipality of Verona to access financial coverage for the construction of the Traditional Italian Games and Sports Park and the expansion of the old Casa Colombare into the future “Centre for the Safeguarding of Traditional Games and Sports – Casa Tocatì” (PON Culture and Development 2014/2020). The works began in 2023 and will end in 2026. The entire project will lead to the creation, unique in Italy, of a cultural ludic centre dedicated to traditional games and sports, an international meeting point where communities and all enthusiasts can find information, food for thought and above all other players belonging to the most diverse ludic communities, with whom to share ludic experiences. Casa Tocatì will be able to develop new projects with other thematic centers located in the countries of the Tocatì program, such as Sportimonium in Belgium.

Among the partner countries, France and Belgium, with the program for the protection of ludodiversity, have significant and pioneering experience in the inventory of traditional play heritage. In Croatia and Cyprus, more recent and significant experiences are underway.

In Italy, with the participation in the call dedicated to the intangible heritage of the Lombardy Region, Associazione Giochi Antichi (AGA) has inaugurated a new season of studies since 2018, dedicated to the inventory of traditional ludic heritage in close dialogue with the communities of practice.

With the support of the Archivio di Etnografia e Storia Sociale (AESS) of the Lombardy region, we worked in a network: some of these communities are part of a movement that every year in September moves towards the Tocatì Festival in Verona. They have been traveling companions of AGA for many years. Other communities have been new discoveries.

Thanks to them we continue to discover that traditional games are much more than they seems: play is incorporated memory, it is rule, need and passion, adaptation to transformation, communication and health, sociability and sense of community, celebration and daily life.

The experience of the inventory project IN GIOCO – Community in network for the protection of play heritage. Journey through a region that plays has continued since 2018 with great success!

Intangible search 

This was followed by the splendid experience achieved thanks to the project “Geoportale della Cultura alimentare”, a project developed thanks to the support of the Central Institute of Intangible Heritage that led us to make a documentation journey throughout Italy. With the creation of a section of the platform dedicated to Food and Play, we have undertaken an innovative and creative inventory work, which has allowed us to consolidate a Tocatì methodology, shared internationally.

One of the objectives of the Tocatì program is to raise awareness among administrations about the recovery of play in the cultural spaces of communities: squares, streets, alleys, courtyards, countryside and public parks, lakes and mountains; showing that this represents a valuable tool for transforming and recovering urban spaces.

This recovery improves the dialogue between the administration and the citizens and stimulates their active participation, enriching the quality and well-being of the places of daily life. Significant experiences are underway in the 5 countries of the partnership. In Verona in 2009, at the request of the inhabitants of a neighbourhood of the city and with the support of local administrations, the first “street dedicated to play” in Italy was opened, in the Borgo Venezia neighbourhood of Verona: La strada del gioco.

In Italy, at a national level, the meetings Tocatì – The days of the Intangible have inaugurated, since November 2017, the construction of an Italian network for the safeguarding of the ludic heritage. These are days of exchange of experiences, training and strengthening of the capacities of communities and institutions, which form around AGA – leader of the Tocatì program – a solid network for the safeguarding of a little-known and studied living heritage. A network that reveals and represents an unpublished Italy, rich in traditions and creativity: the Italy of traditional games. This process, supported by the Veneto Region, the Lombardy Region and the Central Institute for the Intangible Heritage, is now developing in other regions of Italy and by the will of the communities of the network. In 2024 we were invited by the community of Farigliano in Piedmont and in Urbino, at the community of the stilt walkers of Schieti and that of the kite festival of Urbino. Also in 2024 we were guests of the community of Pirlì, which organized the great event “TUTTI IN GIOCO” In 2025 we will be in Valle d’Aosta, guests of FENT.

At the international level, the annual Symposium Tocatì a shared heritage, in the framework of the Forum Cultura Ludica during the Festival, has brought together the network of the candidacy partnership since 2016. Each year, themes of common interest have been proposed, such as: Towards a network candidacy project of the Festival (2016), Challenges of the multinational process of candidacy of Tocatì to the Register of Good Practices for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (2017), Re-thinking Tocatì for Europe (2018), Community participation. Dialogues between civil society and institutions (2019), Community time: between intangible heritage and educational contexts (2020), Intangible cultural heritage in times of pandemic. Reflections from Italy (2021).

The Symposium regularly brings together and brings visibility to the network of communities and groups belonging to the Traditional Games and Sports movement (AEJEST), a significant network of ICH accredited NGOs, the partnership institutions, consolidating commitment and working perspectives inspired by Article 18 of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The partners of the Tocatì program have started, since 2015, a European project and cooperation work with other organizations to support the protection of Traditional Games and Sports, in order to:

– Promote the development of the individual by setting in motion physical, affective, emotional, social and cognitive dynamics that contribute in a holistic way to personal and relational growth and contribute to health;

– Promote knowledge and protection of European Traditional Games and Sports, promoting intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and gender equality. The leading association of the Tocatì program, AGA, to pursue these goals has coordinated or participated in several European projects, for the sectors of education, sport and culture.

☞ CROATIA: The accession of IPS Croatia to AEJeST has enriched and expanded this collaboration, and the point of arrival is the partnership in the international candidacy for the UNESCO Good Practice Register and the partnership in the Erasmus+ Opportunity project;

☞ FEDERATION OF BASQUE TRADITIONAL GAMES AND SPORTS OF IPARRALDE: Affiliated to the Federation of Basque Games and Sports of Iparralde, we are part of its steering committee. This is how we discovered the rich and diverse world of traditional games and sports in Europe through AEJ and ST and around the world with ITSGA.

☞ QUILLES AU MAILLET: Quilles au Maillet is a member of several international networks (AEJST, TAFISA), regional networks in the field of sport, culture (CROS Occitanie Culture Diversité, etc.). Quille au Maillet participates in meetings and exchanges with other players in France and Europe.

Since 2022, thanks to the initiative promoted by the Forum of Accredited NGOs for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage, AGA and the Tocatì program are involved in an innovative approach to cultural tourism.

With the Living Heritage Journeys project – Intangible Heritage Journeys, funded by the European Union – Creative Europe program – running from 2024 to 2027, AGA becomes part of a European network of Good Practices recognized by UNESCO and committed to the forefront of implementing Article 18 of the Convention.

The project aims to promote the integration of living heritage into sustainable tourism experiences. The international partnership includes Italy, Belgium, Croatia, Sweden and Poland, with the Thomas More University of Applied Sciences as the leader.

Living Heritage Journeys aims to promote the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as a tool for the development of sustainable tourism experiences, involving local communities and tourism market players. The goal is to develop experiences and skills, based on new synergies between tourists, communities and institutions, through the enhancement of living heritage. The project, of which the Associazione Giochi Antichi is a partner, will gather knowledge to promote tourism that respects and enhances the cultural expressions of the territories. The Tocatì network animated by the Associazione Giochi Antichi will be able to strengthen itself by bringing visibility to its experiences. We hope to be able to lead, through this journey, our “Tocatì, a shared program for the protection of traditional games and sports” towards new goals!

International partnership: Italy – Associazione Giochi Antichi – AGA – Verona, Belgium – Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (leader) – Mechelen and Workshop Intangible Heritage – WIE – Bruges, Croatia – Batana Ecomuseum in Rovinj, Sweden – Styorytelling network in Kronoberg, Poland – Intangible Heritage Interpretation Centre – Krakow History Museum

To protect the communities of practitioners, holders, players, the Tocatì program is developing in Italy a work of formalization of agreements with research and training institutions, such as the University of Verona and other universities, public bodies such as municipalities and regions, civil society associations. This work includes training and capacity-building activities, design of shared communication tools, such as a program logo, to protect the communities’ network.