This Abandoned Italian Fun Park Will Host the World Hide-and-Seek Championships
Ready or not, here we come.
Now that the Olympics are over and done with, the real sporting contests can begin. Next week, more than 300 competitors will descend upon a small, abandoned town in Italy. Their purpose? To decide beyond all doubt the greatest hide-and-seek player in the world.
The epic contest will take place on September 3-4 in Consonno at the foot of the Alps. Once known as the 'Land of Toys', the village is home to an old amusement park, but was abandoned after a landslide in the mid-'70s cut off the only access road. If you can think of a better place for a massive game of hide-and-seek, we'd certainly like to hear it.
This year will see 64 five-person teams complete for gold and glory. One of the members of last year's winning team told Quartz that the two-day tournament was "pretty competitive", and that "each team had their tactics." Just don't expect his team to share theirs, because "obviously we will never disclose them."
Sounds like a wise move, especially since a Japanese university professor began lobbying the Olympic committee to include hide-and-seek at the Tokyo Games in 2020. Although to be honest, as Olympic sports go, this probably wouldn't make for particularly good TV viewing.
Image: Marcello Brivio.
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