Success is so often measured by being the biggest, the loudest, the most well attended. A world that demands constant growth, things being bigger and better all the time and pushes the idea that we need to be loud to be heard in a world full of noise, distraction and competition (both online and off), is exhausting. I can’t help but think there has to be another way of doing things.

And I can’t shake the feeling that there is something to be said about the quiet, the small and the authentic. I think Fun Palaces weekend creates space for us to do and be just that, if we want.*

A Tiny Exchange

When I first started working for Fun Palaces in 2021 (sort of in lockdowns, sort of not – it was a very strange time,) I was talking to the co-founder and co-director of Fun Palaces Sarah-Jane Rawlings about Fun Palaces and what they are and what they do. She spoke of someone passing a flower over the fence to a neighbour and that moment of connection where your hands meet, as one way to think about what Fun Palaces can be. And that image has travelled across these five years with me. 

The fence could be a balcony, or a table you’re sitting either side of – and the flower might be knitting needles, or a song sheet or a grow your own crystal pack. But it’s the exchange; the moment of connection that’s the thing. And Fun Palaces Weekend 2026 will create thousands of those moments – and I can see, already has. From Corbett Community Library and Telegraph Hill Centre decorating posters in the lead up to the weekend, to Mosaic Malarkey in Hastings inviting people in to make paper-chains for their Fun Palace, to the Cwm Garw Makers gathering the elders and children of the valley to discuss what they’d like to learn from one another on Fun Palaces Weekend. It’s Medway working together to create a trail of Fun Palaces between Chatham and Rochester and Flosverse Fun Palace in Alloa asking people to tune into their local area and note down landmarks of interest to bring along on the day. The connection is already happening. 

So here’s an invitation (which you can take or leave): don’t worry about the number of people coming through the door to your Fun Palace, but instead notice the moments where a connection happens. Whether it’s with someone you’ve met for the first time that day, or someone you’ve known for years. Don’t worry how perfect it is, or how smoothly it runs. It can be a bit messy, last minute and scrappy. Things can go differently to how you’d planned. What matters is people, in a room, figuring it out together. 

1000 Tiny Revolutions of Connection

Around the time Sarah-Jane described the flower to me, Fun Palaces were running their One Thousand Tiny Revolutions of Connection Campaign. The idea taught me that there’s power in stepping outside of the noise to create our own revolution of a thousand (and more) tiny connections, at the grassroots, in our lives and in the lives of our neighbours. Your Fun Palace is yours, you get to make it on your terms and create what you’d like to see locally. When a Fun Palace is filled with the passions and enthusiasms of the local people running it, then not only do new people take part, but they have an opportunity to celebrate where they live and the people who live there, as well as a chance to make stronger and deeper connections. This is the real change. 

I know, from the four Fun Palaces I’ve made, how quickly it all goes and how non-stop it can be, but if you can take a moment over the weekend to notice the connection and celebrate what you’ve created by stepping up and saying ‘yes’ to making a Fun Palace, then do. And think of all of the other people across the UK who also said yes and are also making a Fun Palace at the same time as you, it’s all joined up.

Amie (that’s me), Rachel, Ria and Orla will be getting to as many Fun Palaces as is humanly possible this weekend and we really can’t wait to see what you do, meet some of you and hear about your Fun Palace – and you! And if we don’t make it along, please do send photos, updates, whatsapps (Amie’s number: 07747 182 865)

*And just to say if your Fun Palace is big, loud and attended by a thousand people – that is also wonderful, of course!