What are you doing on Friday the 3rd October? Or Saturday 4th or Sunday 5th?  

A month from now, we will be welcoming in the 12th annual weekend of Fun Palaces action. A free, nationwide celebration of culture, arts and sciences. And if you have an hour, a day or even the whole weekend free, it is most certainly not too late to join in. 

Every year, on the first weekend of October, people up and down the UK (and beyond) join in by making Fun Palaces: free, hands-on events where people share the skills, hobbies and interests that matter to them. 

I occasionally meet people who try to fit Fun Palaces into a pre-existing box ‘Oh, it’s like a fête’ – No. ‘Ah, like a festival.’ Also no. It’s not a community arts project or a sci-comm and it’s not about audience development either. As many existing Fun Palaces Makers will tell you – it is it’s own weird, wonderful and radical thing – and if I had to box it, I would say it was closer to a protest march than any of these things, but it’s not quite that either. 

The Fun Palaces weekend is an opportunity for anyone, anywhere (yes – YOU!) to stand up and stick a pin in the Fun Palaces map, and make your area known as a place rich with arts, sciences AND, most importantly, brilliant people.  It’s the moment where we (collectively) shout from the rooftops that arts, sciences and culture belong to us all, and can look how we want them to (orange peel mobiles, stories of adventures to Iceland and giant cardboard palaces are all just as important as opera, Shakespeare and contemporary art exhibitions). It’s a time for anyone who wants to have a go at being a local leader to do just that (even with no experience – we can help; there are many stories of Fun Palaces Makers who’d never run an event before making a Fun Palace). 

You can make a Fun Palace in your living room for you and a few neighbours (just tick the Tiny Fun Palace option when signing up to avoid giving your exact location away), or you can make a bigger one, maybe in a park, or street, or you could talk to your local library, museum, theatre or community centre (foyers can be a great place for Fun Palaces to happen). 

You can do something tiny, scrappy and last minute – it’s not the shininess or perfection or even getting it perfectly right that matters – it’s the ripples we create and the connections we build when we stand up and make something happen together, no matter how small. And I believe (having been a Maker myself) that Fun Palaces can be a moment in the year for us to stop and dream into a better way for things to be. 

So, if you believe culture, arts and sciences should be for everyone, have 30 minutes, an hour, a day, to spare on the Fun Palaces weekend and want to make some space for some fun, connection and skill sharing, then join us (and by us, I mean the 45,000 people that have made Fun Palaces since we began) and make your own. 

And if you want to talk through ideas, or have any questions, get in touch!