Dawn
Activities and Bookings Manager
On Sunday 3 October 2021 Fearon Hall was turned into a Fun Palace. We had over 200 people attend our free workshops between 10am and 5pm on the day. The participants ranged in age from 3 to 80 and everyone had a thoroughly great day.
A Fun Palace is a free, nationwide campaign for culture at the heart of community and community at the heart of culture which happened over the weekend of the 1/2/3 October 2021.
Each Fun Palace including the one at Fearon Hall celebrated the unique skills and passions of Loughborough people – run by, for and with the local community. Since 2014 a total of 2,100 Fun Palaces have been made across the UK and worldwide by over 40,000 local people (‘Makers’) with 650,000 people taking part. This year was the eighth Fun Palaces weekend.
Fun Palaces create events that bring together arts, science, craft, tech, digital, heritage and sports activities – but above all PEOPLE – to work together, create together, have FUN together, and in doing so, connect our own communities, from the grassroots up.
At the Fearon Hall Fun Palace we had activities such as flower arranging, pumpkin carving, painting, drawing, belly & Morris dancing, boxing, tai-chi, pond dipping, frog hunting, outside games, printing, junk modelling and much much more. Each one hour session was delivered by a local community member who gave their time on a Sunday to encourage others to embrace the arts and develop new skills. A huge thank you to all those who gave up their time for free!
The weather was mild for an October day meaning that lots of outdoor activities could happen and the Loughborough University Action Students made sure that children were worn out by running and playing outdoor games. Our café was open allowing people to meet and chat and the workshops were enjoyed by many members of our local community. We hope to run another Fun Palace in 2022, so keep an eye out on our website and if you would like to offer a workshop then let us know.
Find out more about Fun Palaces here.
Here are some photographs from the day…
