TagFest Edinburgh 2025 Review

Our third Edinburgh TagFest was held on Saturday, 30th August at Inch Park. Teams travelled from Newcastle, London and Leeds to join our Edinburgh teams for a day full of competitive fun! After a shaky start with some double bookings on pitches, games kicked off 10 minutes late and ran smoothly for the rest of the day even when the rain joined us in the late afternoon making for some tricky ball handling skills in the latter half of Phase Two.

Teams made a massive effort with their fancy dress which was Food & Drink themed! We had Whisk(e)y Business decked out with velcro ties (got to make sure the rules are adhered to!) and business cards. Scrumbelievable 99s topped with hundreds and thousands sprinkles and cone hats! Tag-tose Intolerant with their cow outfits. Fend the G had specially made tattoos for the day. Highland Cookers in their chef outfits and hats and many, many more! 

Off field activities such as face painting by Poodle Pop Art and garden games with badminton, skittles, jenga and boules kept everyone entertained between phases. Googly eyed brussell sprouts, full face pineapples and Lord Farquaad and the Gingerbread men were brought to life by Sarah and her facepainting skills! You Can’t Tag Me, I’m the Gingerbread Man won Best Dressed of the day for the second year running, following their Caterpillar inspired outfits in 2024.

A food inspired Hungry Hippos relay race was our half time entertainment with ‘Percy Piggy Backs’, ‘Hula Hooping’ and the ‘Potato Sack race’ pitting our teams against each other on Pitch 1. With some teams hesitant to get involved, they quickly took up the challenge and used their creativity to maximise their chances (filling hats, tshirts and shorts with balls!). The rules were lax and the creativity was high! 

Back on the pitches, teams were split into pools to determine their division for Phase Two of the day. Tag Slagz on Tour, Funderbuddies, The Avo-taos, Russell Sprouts, The British and Irish Loins all made it through Phase One winning all of their games. Some very closely fought contests across the day with multiple draws and one point wins including the Plate and Cup finals.

Phase Two began with the Bowl and Shield Quarter Finals which saw some closely contested games, particularly between Edinburgh’s own British & Irish Loins and Nacho Average Team along with Russell Sprouts and Highland Cookers. B&I Loins, Ten(nents) out of Ten, Highland Cookers and Sheep Taggers Two Boogaloo all made it through to the semi finals with Ten(nents) out of Ten winning the final against Sheep Taggers Two Boogaloo by a margin of 6-3. Ten(nents) achieved this while balancing tins of Tennents on their heads throughout the day! A tribute to their beloved Thursday night post-league pints.

The Shield saw Sleeveless Sausages, Tagaroni & Cheese, Try-ger King and Chicken Scrumsticks progress to the semis, with Tagaroni & Cheese winning the division against Sleveless Sausages by 3-0. 

Next up was the Plate Quarter Finals – a division full of Edinburgh based teams. Tag-Tose Intolerant, Edi Tagfest team, Thomas the Ugly Tagfest Engine and Tagbasco all progressed through the Quarter Final stage with Edinburgh Tagfest Team victorious in a drawn game due to scoring first. The final score was 2-2. Top marks for winning, D minus for team name. 

The Cup was a toughly contested division with Edinburgh and London bringing their top Tag skills to the capital! Tag Slagz on Tour, Funderbuddies, Avo-tagos and Scottish Uni-Cones all made it through to the semi finals. Tag Slagz overcame the Scottish Uni-Cones 5-0, and Avo-tagos beat London’s Funderbuddies by just one point, 4-3. The Cup final saw a much played out game on Edinburgh fields – Tag Slagz v Avo-tagos. There is never much between these teams in our weekly leagues and this was no different. A final score line of 4-3 gave Avo-tagos the win for a second year running. 

Our wonderful referees kept the spirits high throughout the day, setting the tone for the tournament even though some had 5am starts to make it to the venue on time! Our referee of the day was Eythain Diaz from Newcastle in his first run out at an Edinburgh TagFest. 

The After Party was held at the iconic venue, The Caves, in Edinburgh city centre where live music from one of Edinburgh’s own players, Archie Duffield and his band kick started the night before the DJ got the dancefloor hopping until late.

Photos

Check out our photos from the day.

Results

Check out the results from the day.