Why Make a Fun Palace?

Especially for venues, buildings, organisations and groups – and useful for individuals too.

Fun Palaces is an ongoing campaign for culture at the heart of community and community at the heart of culture, with an annual weekend of celebration every October.

We support buildings, venues, organisations, groups and individuals to create their own community-led events, shining a light on the skills, passions and enthusiasms in every locality, so they can be shared more widely and more equally.  Fun Palaces are about active and hands-on participation for all ages and all levels of experience and involvement.

Since the first Fun Palaces weekend in 2014 there have been over 2600 Fun Palaces, made by over 40,000 local people, with 800,000 people taking part in 16 countries.

Fun Palaces believes that everyone and anyone should be able to create and share the culture that matters to them. More about us and about the campaign.

WHAT IS A FUN PALACE?

Fun Palaces are everything from Sheffield Theatres opening their doors and welcoming in thousands of local people to get to know their venues better, experiencing the building as genuinely theirs – whether they come to see a show or not – to a small community group taking over a space in the local museum and leading their own Fun Palace for their neighbours, and growing year on year as Farnham Fun Palace has done.

“What better way to preserve humanity in an uncertain future than to strengthen community ties and community spirit through fun participatory engagement. The need for Fun Palaces goes beyond free activities to enjoy just for the sake of fun (although wonderful and important as that is!) it also provides opportunities for local people to work together and feel proud of achieving an event or an activity. The sense of pride and achievement that we see with each Fun Palace is heart-warming and unifies local people – this is why we continue to support Fun Palaces. It is a real chance to make real connections and real friends, to learn from each other and to celebrate what is unique and exciting about our town and the people who live here.”

Royal and Derngate Fun Palace, Northampton

“(Fun Palaces) change the conception we have of our place in the community. They encourage engagement, cooperation, social sharing and understanding.”

Farnham Fun Palace, Surrey

“Most of the workshops happening today, most of the activities, our Radical Fun Advisers, they’re all members of communities that we’ve never worked with before, and we now have a relationship with all of these different communities and audiences, and we can just build on that.”

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

WHAT DIFFERENCE CAN YOU MAKE WITH A FUN PALACE?

• Fun Palaces are an opportunity to create with a full cross section of your local community – every year our reach has become MORE diverse, with participants from a wider range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
• Making a Fun Palace grows local links. In 2018, 85% of Makers involved someone new in the Maker team and 90% planned on keeping in touch.
• Fun Palaces participants and Makers tell us that being part of a national and international campaign helps them shine a light on the amazing work that are already doing locally.
• The Fun Palaces campaign – and our presence in the press and on social media – supports Makers and participants to grow an understanding that culture belongs to all of us, as creators as well as consumers.
• Fun Palaces conducts an extensive communications campaign each year nationally and locally, along with a full evaluation of our work annually, and these will include you.

“Fun Palaces are an attempt to stop the culture that sees people being told what to do and helping people to do what THEY want to do.”

Jack Morrison, Fun Palaces Ambassador, Cornwall

Sign up now

make a Fun Palace 4th/5th/6th October 2024 (or at another time during the year)

make YOUR fun palace