The Seven Sins Festival – Sat 14 and Sun 15 June, 2025

by Aramiha Harwood & Carlo Tolentino

The Sin Series at Prahran Market was an autumn/winter festival event that took place over 8 weekends during May and June 2025. Each weekend featured different activities, music and entertainment, as well as associated delicious foods, related to the various themes of Sin. Sloth, for example, offered gentle acoustic music, mulled wine, and cosy romcoms on big TV screens. Gluttony presented a sausage-eating competition, while Pride was celebrated with Drag Queen Bingo. The entire festival would culminate in a weekend of night-time food, music and activities at the Sinner’s Roast.

The idea for play busking came from creative director Carlo Tolentino at a future play lab planning meeting. Team members were contemplating the slow movement associated with obtaining permits and planning permissions for pop-up events and parklet activities – including at Festivals. Carlo suggested that perhaps play activation artists could operate as buskers on the street, with a little mobile set of equipment they could take from place to place, to run 2-3 simple games/play-activities for passing foot traffic. The only permissions required would be getting a busking permit from local councils.

The future play lab were approached by City of Stonnington to see if we would be interested in play-related activations at the Prahran Market during the Sin Series festival. Two weekends were provided as possible dates to get involved. The first weekend would encompass the hustle and bustle of the day-time market, celebrating the sin of Pride (also coinciding with the Pride Festival). The second weekend would be during the Sinner’s Roast of the final weekend – to be held at night-time.

For the sin of Pride weekend, it was thought that the play busking model could be one that would work in this context. It would be during the day and in a market – local foot traffic would be used to interaction with busking artists in a market setting. The possibilities of play busking could also be explored in Prahran Market, with a variety of places and spaces afforded to the play lab team/s to try out and experiment with.

Two Playful Spaces Officers (PSO’s), Vaishali and Lester, operated throughout the Prahran Market for two days with a single suitcase of play activation equipment and games. Not only did they operate as facilitators of the games, they could also bring their expertise in game design and facilitation to changing the rules and conditions of the game/s – depending on where they were, at the time, and who they were with.

Both PSO’s felt that each play space—whether urban parks, indoor venues, or public streets—presented unique challenges. These included accommodating different group sizes, energy levels, and the diverse personalities and interests of potential participants, requiring tailored ways of inviting people to play.

Moving from place to place as a play-busker demanded careful consideration of how people could interact with new spaces and how best to engage them. Vaishali and Lester argued that play-busking games must be inclusively simple to foster spontaneous, meaningful interactions across different age groups, as people would often join after observation of the game/s first.

For the Saturday event, both elders and young adults were present at the market to do their shopping, while Sunday saw more family-oriented participation with partners and toddlers. Game explanations and demonstrations were targeted to different age groups. It was noted that on one occasion, specifically on Sunday, two games were run simultaneously to accommodate toddlers’ individual interests. The games played included Lemon Joust, Square of Sounds, Fox and Squirrel, and Zen Counting. For ‘Square of Sounds,’ instruments were incorporated into the play, and participants learned to play music by pointing out icons.

Audience Engagement and Invitation to Play

Lester and Vasishali mentioned initial difficulties in engaging market-goers, as people were primarily focused on grocery shopping. Initial attempts to invite people by shouting about games led to confusion and onlookers questioning the event. The strategy was then changed to inviting people to play ‘free games,’ which resulted in more positive interactions, including smiles and inquiries. The wider demographic of participants demonstrated that urban pop-up play could appeal to a diverse range of ages, suggesting potential for broader community engagement. The PSO’s were also able to engage people through conversations around the future play lab itself and the concept of urban play.

Venue and Setup Considerations

On the first day, at the first location (an entrance into the food hall section of the market), the team struggled to invite people to participate. Market security referred to this location as a ‘bad’ area. This highlighted the advantage of a busking-style setup, allowing the PSO’s to pick up and move to locations with more crowds. Considerations for location selection included ensuring the safety of participants, avoiding disturbance to other shops and/or businesses, and being mindful of existing amenities like dog water bowls and tables. Issues such as cold conditions in the food hall were also noted. At the end of the first day, an outer space was tried, but most people had finished their shopping so it was a quiet area.

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Overall it was felt that this first go at play-busking was a success. By moving around to different locations within the Prahran Market, and adjusting the games to the audience/s at any given place and/or time, there were some very useful and meaningful interactions with the diverse groups who frequent the market on the weekend. There will definitely be further adjustments and tweaking for future events. This may include introducing different or additional games on different days to offer variety, varying game difficulty levels to suit participants’ ability levels, and continuing to move play locations to encourage maximum engagement. The experience and capability of the PSO’s – as facilitators and game-designers – cannot be overestimated in its importance for play-busking in particular.

Of course there was not too much time for those of us at future play lab to reflect on play-busking as a method. We needed to get ready for the following weekend of play activities at the night-time festival Sinner’s Roast!

Urban Play activations in the Darkness… what Fun! More details coming soon…