The Best Weekend You Can Have, 2026 Edition
I’ve read a few write-ups now of EMF 2026 and the theme seems to be “Everybody has a different EMF” (which is very true), so let’s dive into my Four Days In Eastnor.
Famous for fifteen people
With EMF[0], you get out of it what you put in. To a certain extent, you are the event. You must become the entertainment you wish to see in the field.
It turns out that if you’ve been constantly hyping-up EMF on Mastodon, and then choose to go about the field in a bright-red top hat, people will recognise you and come and say hello. I was slightly freaked-out when somebody that I definitely hadn’t met before called out “Hi Sam” from their tent; it wouldn’t be the last time.
Being Vaguely Recognised made me feel like much more like I was right in the thick of this EMF, where previous camps were maybe happening all around me and I was just bumbling through. I am often The Person That Comes To A Meetup, Stands Awkwardly On His Own Drinking One Beer, And Then Leaves Without Speaking To Anybody, but some combination of A Joy-Filled Field, Sunshine, and a Red Top Hat gave me Social Superpowers I never knew I could manifest.
And then on the Sunday, I posted this
and things really escalated. This post was purely an attempt to ensure I saw the 5 people listed (and get selfies) (I saw 4, one was not in fact at EMF at all), but I had so many people come up to say hello.
Including a guy who said “Oh, I’ve just found you in the game in the arcade”. I had quite forgotten that Kestral had included me in their GooseVenture game. So I went to the arcade to have a go.
I managed to find myself, but while I was trying to work out how to wake myself up, somebody came and found me and asked me if I’d seen the flyer attached to the noticeboard by the Info Tent, bearing the words “Pikesley Pikesley Pikesley”. There were others:
In other circumstances I would have been somewhat freaked out by this, but at EMF, just about the Safest Space I can think of, I was intrigued (and, I cannot lie, flattered). I have subsequently found out who was behind these - they also told me “you made an excellent EMF for many people just being you” which, I mean, I guess EMF really brings out the very best in all of us.
I never did go back to the arcade to wake myself up, though.
EMF as an act of defiance
Call me a sentimental old fool (for that is what I am), but I genuinely hold EMF to be a Sacred Space[1]. We are standing on Holy Ground for that one glorious weekend every two years. I think about the several people who have told me that EMF allowed them to be themselves, to discover who they truly are. I think about the young person we met outside the bar on the Sunday who had just changed their name and was unbelievably excited to tell us about it. I think about the kid who wanted to watch the World Cup Final so his dad dropped him off at our village to sit with whoever was up there and it was all, just, fine. And on, and on, and on. A better world is extremely possible.
I got home and tried to explain what an amazing time we’d all had and I burst into (good, happy, positive) tears.
I’ll leave you with this:
Roll on 2028.
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