Fun Palaces

What is Fun Palaces? Hello, as it’s Fun Palaces weekend, you might be here for the first time, and wondering what on earth Fun Palaces is all about… here’s a quick explainer: Fun Palaces is a campaign to put communities at the heart of culture and culture at the heart of communities. We believe everyone an artist, everyone a scientist. On the first weekend of October, you’re invited to join in by making a Fun Palace - sharing the skills, hobbies and interests that matter to you, with your neighbours and local community. In doing so we create a free, nationwide celebration of arts, culture and sciences. And when we do it altogether, all at the same time, it becomes connected: more joined up. There’s strength in numbers. There’s power when we all do something at the same time - it makes it easier to prove a point. The point being that there is a little bit of genius in all of us, that we all have something to share and we all have lives rich in culture; that every town, village, city and community is unique, has something to offer and stories to tell. Since 2014 there have been 2600 Fun Palaces, made by 45,000 people, attended by 850,000 people. You can visit a Fun Palace this weekend (3rd-5th October 2025), make a tiny, last minute Fun Palace, or join in next year - anyone, anywhere can make a Fun Palace! Image by @emilymed (the original Fun Palace image from 2014)

Why host a Fun Palace? 🎉 Hear from 2024 organisers about the joy, creativity, and community power behind their events. Find out what #FunPalaces really mean — and why you might want to make one too!

Are you on the map? 🗺 You can now register your Fun Palace for the 2026 Weekend of Action. All you need is a date and a venue - the rest can be figured out later. Click the link on our bio to Join Our Movement. #FunPalaces #EveryoneAScientist #EveryoneAnArtist #AllCultureCounts

Fun Palaces Network Meeting - 19 May 2026, Pontycymer (near Bridgend), Wales 🔴Have you made a Fun Palace? 🔴Want to get paid to have your say in what happens next with Fun Palaces? 🔴Fancy meeting some other Makers and finding out about their Fun Palaces? If you've been part of making a Fun Palace - whether you led an activity, made the tea, hosted it in your venue, put up the posters round your town, or greeted people at the entrance - then you're invited to the Fun Palaces Makers’ Network, you really are! The Fun Palaces Makers Network is a 4 year project, designed to bring Fun Palaces Makers and friends together from across the UK, to share experiences, support one another, and make decisions about the future of the Fun Palaces campaign. All travel, accommodation and meals are covered by Fun Palaces, and you can claim £180 attendance fee (if not attending as part of your job). If you have any questions about attending a network meeting, please email: amie @ funpalaces.co.uk or drop us a DM.

“It was fantastic! It brought together members of the community who don’t usually get the opportunity to get together. I spent time with people of all ages and I think one or two re-discovered their passions" - Fun Palaces Participants Are you a Maker with a Fun Palaces story to tell? Drop it in the comments or DM us! Culture: It’s What We Make is a new initiative from Fun Palaces to celebrate and spotlight Fun Palace Makers and their impact on their communities. FULL QUOTE: “It was fantastic! It brought together members of the community who don’t usually get the opportunity to get together. I spent time with people of all ages and I think one or two re-discovered their passions because they had the chance to try out some activities that they hadn’t done for a while. Today, I really felt that I had something to offer my community and that it was valued by those who participated.” #FunPalaces #AllCultureCounts #Community

A look back at Fun Palaces Weekend of Action 2025! Fun Palaces Makers from across the UK share how they celebrated the 12th annual Fun Palaces Weekend. And what it meant to them and their communities. A huge thank you to all the Fun Palace Makers in the video. Produced & Edited by Orla Nicholls, Exec Producer - Fun Palaces Videography by Roswitha Chesher, Jamie Buttershaw and Fun Palaces Support Hub team. Voiceover by Claire Mullan - Fun Palaces Maker and Chama Aimable-Kapumpa - Fun Palaces Marketing and Communications Manager Feeling inspired? Head over to our website to sign up and make your Fun Palace for our 2026 Weekend of Action, 2-4 October.

This May Day Bank Holiday we celebrate Fun Palaces Makers and colleagues who work in the cultural, community and science sectors. Many will be working or volunteering today, putting on events and giving their time and skills to brining joy to their communities. Fun Palaces believe that everyone has something to offer their community. If you do too, head over to our website and find out how you can Join Our Movement. #EveryoneAnArtist #AllCultureCounts #Community #FunPalaces #EveryoneAScientist

Taking a look back at the Fun Palaces 2026 Weekend of Action launch event in April. Thank you to Fun Palaces funders @tnlcommunityfund @thealbanyse8 who host Fun Palaces, Church Street Library @wcclibrariesandarchives for hosting and our literacy Fun Palaces toolkit partners The National Year of Reading from @literacy_trust #EveryoneAnArtist #EveryoneAScientist #FunPalaces #Community #AllCultureCounts

Thinking of making a Fun Palace in 2026? If you are still not sure, here is a few reasons why becoming a Maker this year might be for you! 🤗Community - Fun Palaces bring local people together in ways they may not usually. Connection and strong communities are at the heart of Fun Palaces. 🙅‍♂️💷 No Money Required - Fun Palaces are always free to attend and you do not need to raise lots of money to make one either. Use what you have, gather what you can. Make it yours. 🤝🏼Connection Over Perfection - Your Fun Palace can be messy. Things are allowed to go wrong. People coming together matters more than everything working according to plan. 📏Size Doesn't Matter - Fun Palaces can be big, epic even. And they can be Tiny too. They are all as important as each other! 😆FUN - It is right there in the name after all. Fun really does matter in all our lives and it is all too easy to forget that. Make a stand for FUN! . Convinced? Head to our website and see how you can get yourself on the map 🗺📌 - Join Our Movement #EveryoneAScientist #EveryoneAnArtist #Community #FunPalaces #AllCultureCounts Photo credits - Rich MD and Roswitha Chesher

Abi and Laura, Cwm Garw Fun Palace Makers, share the impact Fun Palaces has on their local community in the valley. . Are you a Maker with a Fun Palaces story to tell? Drop it in the comments or DM us! . FULL QUOTE - “We had like, elders in the valley, youngest of the valley, everyone in between. We had people who grew up in the valley that have never left. We had people that had grown up in the valley and then returned. We had people who had family in the valley, and they came along, and then people who didn’t grow up here as well” “[It’s] a resilient community, but there’s been lots of challenges since the mines closed. There’s not many opportunities socio-economically. And lots of the culture that built up around mining, after that left there was a bit of community dislocation. The social connections that used to be made in community hubs, they don’t exist as much anymore. And so finding something else that we can gather around and gather together and put something on for the community, and to make it feel like a real community where everyone comes together for this event, it feels like a really like positive thing” #EveryoneAGenius #EveryoneAScientist #FunPalaces #AllCultureCounts #CulturalDemocracy #EveryoneIsAnArtist #Community

"[Fun Palaces] bring people together who might never normally meet. You don’t have to be in the same circles, you don’t have to agree on everything, you just have to be willing to share something.." Former Fun Palaces Ambassador and current Redruth Town Councillor @ellie_allen_redruth shares her experience with Fun Palaces and her thoughts on Fun Palaces and why she believes in the power and importance of people coming together. Read the full blog on our website. #CultureinCommunities #FunPalaces #EveryoneAnArtist #EveryoneAScientist

Last week, Kathryn (past Maker and current systems change consultant for Fun Palaces) - was representing Fun Palaces at the What We Do Now, Creative Neighbourhoods Conference in Stranraer. Conversations covered community-led activism, working outside of formal systems of of permissions and power (might sound familiar to some Fun Palaces Makers), the importance of connecting buildings, organisations and groups and creating spaces for people from different backgrounds to come together - to name but a few things. www.whatwedonow.scot #CultureinCommunities, #WhatWeDoNow #CreativeNeighbourhoods_26