Warwickshire County Council’s Stratford-upon-Avon Library and Information Centre will be transforming into a creative Fun Palace on Saturday 7 October 2023.
The Fun Palace event will be a day full of free activities from 10am – 3pm celebrating communities and culture, from enjoying children’s activities to sharing stories through music and poetry.
The national Fun Palaces campaign, which takes place during the first weekend of October each year, is a community-focused initiative that supports local people to co-create their own cultural and community events in a public venue, and where everyone’s individual brilliance can be recognised and valued.
Stratford Library will be hosting the following Fun Palace activities, which are available for people of all ages, and will be free to drop-in and enjoy throughout the day:
- 10am – 1pm, Digital music making. Suitable for anyone aged 14+ years to get involved in and enjoy making digital music.
- 10am – 3pm, Children’s activities. Make a rainbow shaker or musical “lolly-monica” suitable for ages 3+ years between 10am-3pm. Enjoy Lego Club from 10am-12pm suitable for ages 4-11 years or get involved in Chess Club from 1-2pm for ages 7-11 years.
- 10:15am, Shakespeare for All. Sit down and enjoy a community reading of Shakespeare’s comedy play “The Taming of the Shrew”.
- 11am – 1pm, Poetry on Demand. Tell your own story to a poet in the library and have a custom poem written for you on the spot.
This year Stratford Library is becoming a Fun Palace alongside local partners the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Town Trust, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. All of these Stratford-based venues will be holding exciting community events that involve variations of music, storytelling, family workshops, and craft activities.
To find out more, download the Stratford-upon-Avon Fun Palace 2023 leaflet.
Cllr Yousef Dahmash, Portfolio Holder for Customer and Transformation, said:
“Fun Palaces is an excellent annual initiative that focuses on the importance of culture and community at its heart. All the free events and activities on the day are delivered by and for that local community, and celebrate the significance of having personal passions and interests in the arts, sciences, technology, sports, and beyond. It also extends an invitation for people to learn new skills and to build new connections.
“Stratford Library is a vibrant, welcoming space, open to all, and I strongly encourage everyone, including families with children or young people, to get involved. It will be a great opportunity to meet like-minded people who live locally and share the same passions and interests as you.”
The Fun Palaces Weekend of Celebration takes place on the first weekend in October each year across the UK and worldwide, and every Fun Palace location is free to attend. The concept was originally created in 1961, when Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price designed a Fun Palace building as a ‘laboratory of fun’. They imagined a building linked through technology to other spaces, accessible to those who wouldn’t normally go to arts venues or great centres of learning. This idea has continued through to the present day, and Fun Palaces are now about joining in with your version of culture, whether that be the arts, sciences, craft, technology, digital, heritage, or sports, and helping to bring people together and share and celebrate the genius in everyone.
To keep-up to date with Warwickshire Libraries’ latest activities, information, and events, you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter, sign-up to the weekly newsletter, or read the Warwickshire Libraries blog
You can join your local library for free at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/jointhelibrary.