Why Fairgame London is better than Flight Club and Electric Shuffle
The Fairgame London gaming arcade has opened in St Paul’s
Admittedly ‘adult play’ sounds like the description on the side of a lube bottle, but lately it’s been pertaining to another type of fun: the idea of adults acting like children.
Soft play centres around the country are opening up for adults-only nights and zoos are throwing over-18s nights, inviting weary workers to lower their cortisol levels by gawping at gorillas rather than guzzling pints.
You’ve seen the Bowls Club pop-up in Finsbury Square, and the Flight Club and Electric Shuffle darts and shuffleboard bars, signifiers of the trend for engaging in some forced fun while drinking. The latest new opening touting adult play is Fairgame in St Paul’s, the subterranean funfair also found in Canary Wharf who say on their website that it is “time to be a kid again,” encouraging City workers to try bee keeping, wheelchair racing and duck hooking instead of pubbing.
Fairgame London: even the office misery guts will enjoy this
I’m the man who has been trying to instigate an in-office egg and spoon race this past summer, so I thought I had better give this a go. I walked down to St Paul’s and booked a 90 minute session to play all 12 games. I threw bean bags at moving targets, tried to grab balls being blown into the air by wind machines, and prevented a shark attack by firing a water gun. I also netted basketballs and tested my patience by balancing balls on top of moving obstacles. By the time my session was over, I was sweating so much my shirt had changed colour.
I am (luckily) the type of guy who manages to have fun without needing to force it. For that reason, I find darts clubs and virtual cricket experiences a bit of a drag. But the throwaway nature of Fairgame London – how quickly you move from one game to the next every few minutes – appealed to me. Fairgame is incredibly low-lift entertainment, 12 little snippets of what is rather cringely called “competitive socialising”, each demonstrating rather beautifully how finding your inner child needn’t only pertain to mental health.
Got a colleague who wouldn’t be into it? No problem: leave them at the Fairgame bar. If they order a cocktail it’ll have an edible duck on top of it or a pile of pink popcorn so they’ll be forced to join in with the fun even if they’re a grumpypants.
Wearefairgame.com; £25 per person for a 90 minute session which includes a go on every Fairgame London game