Patn ads

When you’re a kid and waiting for a big event, time drags. The build-up seems to go on forever. The greater the anticipation, the slower it gets. As an adult, however, time seems to accelerate, especially when there are important things on the horizon. There are 7 weeks to go before this year’s Patn Fest. I guarantee they’ll pass in a flash. Meanwhile, the 100 tickets we earmarked for the event are disappearing fast. To be sure of getting yours, I’d advise booking sooner rather than later, before time runs out. Patn Fest 2026 takes place on Wednesday 17 June. www.patnfest.com

Here are two ways of looking at a festival. One is to consider the content: who are the star attractions and what will they be offering? Another is to consider the vibe: what will it feel like to be there with other, likeminded people? A good festival will accommodate both these perspectives. It’ll offer great content its target audience wants to experience and engage with, but also, it’ll feel right for them. When they get there, they’ll know they’ve come to the right place. Patn Fest is an alternative, one-day festival for placemakers. We’ve always promoted it as being not an industry event because the vibe isn’t about dealmaking but taking time out. There are more than enough business pressures out there without adding to them. We call it a festival because that’s what it is. Patn Fest 2026 is on 17 June at Fairfield Social Club, Manchester. Tickets are now on sale. www.patnfest.com

What's the story? Patn Fest 2026: True adventures in placemaking

A few years ago, I went to the Trees music festival. Its powerful sense of place and community really struck me, at a time when I’d recently started the project that would eventually become Patn. Patn began life as a series of roundtable events for the built environment. This grew into a membership-based community. Now, here was an opportunity to extend the community principle further, by bringing a bigger audience into its orbit for a one-day placemaking event. I didn’t want it to feel in any way like a conference. I wanted it to feel like a festival. At this point, it was largely a leap of faith… 4 years and 3 festivals later, we’re gearing up for this summer’s Patn Fest in Manchester. We’re continuing to build our community and the foundations feel solid. There’s an appetite our there for something different. We’ve felt this all along and we’ve leant into it. We’re still learning, still shaping the festival, but each time feels closer to establishing something specific to Patn Fest, a tangible character. Much like what I originally experienced at Trees. Patn Fest 2026 is on 17 June at Fairfield Social Club, Manchester. Tickets are now on sale. www.patnfest.com

We’ve now allocated around two-thirds of our total number of tickets for this year’s Patn Fest. That’s good news for us, but not so good news if you haven’t booked your spot yet. Luckily, there’s still time. Patn Fest 2026 takes place on Wednesday 17 June, at Fairfield Social Club, Manchester. It’s an all-day, alternative placemaking festival that previous attendees and participants have described as: “A powerful mix of speakers, provocations and people” and: “Rewriting the event playbook.” www.patnfest.com

Winning hearts and minds is crucial to placemaking — places only become places when, or if, people adopt and use them. Creating the conditions where this is more likely to happen must start early. The earlier, the better, really. Which brings us to storytelling. Placemakers, whether they’re developers, planners, architects, engineers, community leaders etc, need to know how to tell compelling stories, to capture their audience’s interest and imagination and, basically, sell the idea. What stories should the built environment be telling? This is the topic of our afternoon panel discussion at this year’s Patn Fest. We’ve invited an expert panel to talk about it: Ben Cross (MORE), Pauline Johnston (Civic and Social), David West (Studio Egret West) and Andrew Johnston (Made It Together). Chairing the panel will be Sam Crothers, founder of Our Studio and a member of our Patn Community. Don’t miss it. Patn Fest is a one-day, alternative placemaking festival in Manchester. It takes place on 17 June. Tickets are on sale now 👇🏽 www.patnfest.com