Not all Fun Palaces are physical. Fuel, producers of fresh work for adventurous people by inspiring artists, are joining the celebrations with an online Fun Palace.

Phenomenal People is a project which was conceived by Fuel to shine a light on women whose stories are not widely known. It’s a fun, participatory and special live and digital event, created in collaboration with a team of fantastic artists, that celebrates stories of inspiring women from all walks of life.

Joan Littlewood is a source of huge inspiration for Fuel and many of the artists we work with, and our ambitions to be inclusive, outward facing and responsive. It seemed a perfect tribute to dedicate our digital garden, an online space where we are inviting people to celebrate women who inspire them, to Joan for the whole Fun Palaces weekend.

Like Joan we want to work hard, challenge convention and listen to what people want as well as offering something new. We hope that like her we can have a positive impact on people who engage with the work that we make, and help make theatres – and the many other venues for our work – into places of debate and enjoyment. We’re excited by the Fun Palaces theme of combining arts, culture, technology and science all under the same roof, nationally, internationally, locally – and online.

As a team we’ll be visiting our own local Fun Palaces over the weekend of the 5-6 October – in London, Brighton, Farnham and elsewhere – and we really hope that some of the Fun Palaces organisers, if they have a spare moment in between making music, weaving, listening to tales about the stars, juggling bees and making the tallest ever toilet paper tower*, might join us online to tell the world why Joan Littlewood is THEIR Phenomenal Person.

*nearly all of these are genuine Fun Palaces events, we understand.

Bridget Floyer, Projects Producer, Fuel