A big part of community is about how we show up. Being present, being together sharing space and celebrating ourselves and each other. But also showing up to make sure we are thinking about all the people in our communities and how we can make them feel more welcome.
What’s On
Fun Palaces host workshops, conferences, exhibitions and other events. Anything we host will always be free to attend.
We also take part in other festivals, conferences, events and meetings across the UK, so there are plenty of ways to meet with us, learn with us and get involved.
If you have any access requirements for any of our events, get in touch at hello@funpalaces.co.uk and we’ll do everything we can to make it work for you.
Want Fun Palaces to speak at or collaborate with you at your event?
Drop us a line here
“I want to look for things that open up new worlds and this does this in a big way – Amazing!”
Fun Palace Maker
Action on Access
Want to know more about how to make events like Fun Palaces more accesible?
You can now book a 30 minute 1:1 online with Faith, the Fun Palaces Access Consultant, to chat through access and ask advice.
Fun Palaces believes that everyone should be able to shape and share the culture they love doing; in considering ways in which you can make your Fun Palace more accessible to disabled, neurodivergent and deaf visitors, as well as those with chronic conditions, you’ll ensure inclusive participation for those in your local community who may sometimes meet barriers when it comes to taking part.
To book your Access 1:1 please email hello@funpalaces.co.uk and put “Access Session Booking Request” in the subject.
📅 Wednesday 18th March & Tuesday 21st April
📌 Online on Zoom (Free)
Fun Palaces at Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics
From the grassroots up: build a culture-for-all campaign
Fun Palaces is part of this year’s Imagine! Belfast Festival: a week-long festival of ideas, politics, debate and creativity across 50+ venues in Belfast.
Join us for a free hands-on workshop exploring how grassroots creativity can grow into something much bigger. We’ll share how Fun Palaces went from small, local community events to a national and international movement, and you’ll come away with practical ideas for building your own campaign for change – whatever that looks like where you are.
Expect co-creation, conversation, games, collaboration, fun and the belief that everyone already has what it takes to make something brilliant happen together.
📅 Monday 23rd March 2.00pm – 4.00pm
📌 In-person workshop at 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast (Free)
Fun Palaces 2026 Launch
It’s time to add your Fun Palace to the map for 2026!
Come and kick off the countdown to our thirteenth Fun Palaces weekend! We’ll celebrate what happened last year, share what’s coming in 2026 and officially open up the map so you can add your Fun Palace. Whether you’re a returning Maker or you’re just curious about what Fun Palaces is all about, this is a great place to start.
Join us either in person for the morning launch in London (with coffee & pastries!) or join us for the online version in the afternoon from wherever you are. Everyone’s welcome.
📅 14th April – choose between London in-person or join us online
📌9.30am – 10.30am Church Street Library, London (free – limited spaces so book soon to secure your place)
📌2.00pm – 2.30pm Online on Zoom (All welcome!)
BSL users: Our London event will have a qualified BSL interpreter throughout.
If you have any access requirements for either event, get in touch at hello@funpalaces.co.uk and we’ll do everything we can to make it work for you.
Fun Palaces at Marmalade Festival, Oxford
From the grassroots up: build a culture-for-all campaign
Fun Palaces is heading to Oxford for the Marmalade Festival in April. A free festival of ideas, activism and change run by The Old Fire Station alongside the Skoll World Forum. Join us for a hands-on workshop exploring how grassroots creativity can grow into something much bigger.
We’ll share how Fun Palaces went from small, local community events to a national and international movement, and you’ll come away with practical ideas for building your own campaign for change -whatever that looks like where you are. Expect co-creation, conversation, games, collaboration, fun and the belief that everyone already has what it takes to make something brilliant happen together.
📅 Tuesday 21st April 10.45am – 12.45pm
📌 In-person workshop at the Story Museum, Oxford (Free)
Attend Stronger Things with Fun Palaces
Represent Fun Palaces at the “Coachella of community power”
There are two spaces available for our Fun Palace Makers to attend Stronger Things by New Local this year. Stronger Things is an annual festival hosted by New Local, an independent think tank and network with a mission to transform public services and unlock community power.
Makers will be paid £180 and travel and accommodation expenses covered to attend.
PLEASE NOTE, you must have previously initiated or been part of a team making a Fun Palace in order to express your interest.
📅 Tuesday 16th June – 1 day event
📌(Timings announced soon) Guildhall, London
Our 2026 Workshops
Fun Palaces on tour across the UK
We’ll be hitting the road again soon, taking Fun Palaces workshops to communities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
These free, in-person sessions are a chance to find out what Fun Palaces are, how they work, and how you (or your community group, library, café, or local venue) can get involved. Some sessions will be hands-on workshops where you’ll learn by making and doing. Some will be relaxed drop-ins where you can grab a cuppa and have a chat with us.
All of them are a chance to experience the Fun Palaces way for yourself and see where it takes you. Full tour dates and locations coming soon – watch this space!
📅 Full tour dates announced at our April launch
📌 In-person workshops, across the UK
The Laboratory of Fun (2026)
Free workshop series for community organisers
Nine free online workshops covering everything you need to plan, promote, fund and run your own community event (from finding a venue and getting funding to designing your own posters, engaging your neighbourhood and looking after your volunteers). Whether it’s your first event or your fiftieth, pull up a chair in the lab and let’s play!
Each session stands alone, or join the full series as your very own ‘summer school’ in community-making.
📅 Every Thursday 4th June – 30th July (9 weeks) 6.00pm – 7.00pm
📌 Online on Zoom
Creative Voices, Activist Voices: Sensory Stories of Creative Communities
Our exhibition
Creative Voices, Activist Voices brings together the stories of communities across the UK who are using creativity to connect, celebrate and make change where they live.
The exhibition presents findings from a research project funded by Centre for Cultural Value and jointly led by Fun Palaces and sociologist Dr Katy Pilcher.
Featuring visual and audio stories from Fun Palaces Makers, the exhibition explores what everyday culture looks and sounds like, told by the people who make it happen. The physical tour has now finished, but you can explore the full exhibition online.
📅 The Exhibition tour has now finished but you can view it online
📌 Online visual and audio tour – follow the link below
“It brought people of all ages together, allowed people to spend quality time with their family
Fun Palace Maker, Acomb Explore, York
and get to know their neighbours, and got people interested in things
they might not otherwise have tried.”