Citizen Friday

The day known as Black Friday, reimagined - celebrating connection, not commerce

Every year, the last Friday in November arrives with a corporate fanfare and slashed prices, telling us we need to buy more. It's the loudest day in a system built on consumption; one that keeps us busy, tired and disconnected from each other and the places we live. But maybe we could buy into something else?

Most of us already have more than enough, and what we're often missing is time: with ourselves, each other, with nature, with the things that actually make us feel human.  So, what if we treated the day as an invitation to slow down, find our people and try existing differently? At ACTionism, we believe in finding the others and taking action together. #CitizenFriday is the simplest and most joyful way to do this. Not a campaign, more a weekly ritual. A chance to be a bit more human. 

The alternative - #CitizenFriday

On Friday 27 November, the day much of the world knows as Black Friday, we're inviting everyone who sees things differently to join in together: in fields, in homes, around tables, in workshops, on walks or online, wherever you happen to be. After that, try doing something small every Friday, however you fancy. 

We like to think of it as: Share, Repair, or Get out in the fresh air, but there really are no rules!

• Repair - you might repair a thing yourself, maybe a relationship, a jumper or even the soil by planting a tree
• Share instead of scrolling - Share something, a tool, a skill, an hour, a lift, a meal, some time making art together, whatever's going.
• Getting some fresh air - go outside instead of getting a parcel - even if it's just for ten minutes and a bit of a nosy at the sky, or walk round the block.

Find a gathering on 27th November

People have already added some really creative events to our map: Stitch hikes, print workshops, shared meals, communal naps (yes, really), and whatever else people have dreamt up. Find something near you, or host your own (see below)

The Citizen Friday Map - Scroll to find something near you. Click a pin for the details and how to say hello to the host.

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Save a chair for the stranger. Actually, scrap that; go and invite them.

No gathering near you yet? That's not a reason to sit this one out.

Host one - it only takes two to citizen

You don't need to be a particular type of person to host a gathering. You don't need experience, a budget, a plan, or anyone's permission.

Fancy being a local host for 27th November? Add yourself to the map. We'll list your name, roughly where you are, and how people can find you.

Sign up to host a gathering - Here

If you're stuck for ideas: repair something, share something, get outside. That's the whole recipe. Everything else is up to you.

Why it matters

Black Friday works because millions of people do exactly the same small thing on exactly the same day, spending money they don't really have on stuff they don't always need. No single purchase moves the needle. It's the pattern, repeated at scale, that shifts billions of pounds and decides what gets made, shipped, and binned.

Citizen Friday runs on the same thinking, pointed the other way. One person mending a jacket on 27th November won't shake the world. Thousands of people doing it, on the same day, starts to look like something else entirely.

"Billions of micro decisions, alongside some pretty big decisions - like basing an economy around the sole measure of GDP - have got us to this point. It will take billions of smaller decisions, which may encourage some bigger ones, before we start to head in a different direction. What that place is doesn't matter right now. What really matters is that we start the journey." Gavin Fernie-Jones

What it actually is

Repair something instead of replacing it. Share something. Get outside, even if it's just for ten minutes and a bit of a nosy at the sky. Make something.

• Repairing instead of buying - you might repair a thing, yourself, or even the soil
• Sharing instead of scrolling - Share something, a tool, a skill, an hour, a lift, a meal, some time making art together, whatever's going
• Getting outside instead of getting a parcel - even if it's just for ten minutes and a bit of a nosy at the sky

Even better, find people you know. Even better still, find people you don’t. Talk to one another. Be with each other. This is our humanity. This is our power. 

No rules on how, or minimum effort required. Some Fridays it's a proper gathering. Most Fridays it's small, and honestly, that's more than enough. Because we know the others are doing the same thing, somewhere, right now. That's how we find the øthers. That's how we see one an øther.

Why every week after

The original Citizen Friday started as our answer to Black Friday.

We ran it once, the first year, then realised once wasn't nearly enough. A single day makes a nice point. A weekly ritual quietly changes you, without you ever really clocking it's happening. So it carries on, every Friday, long after the big day's come and gone.

The magazine

Come the end of October, we're putting out a full issue of our magazine on Citizen Friday. Where it came from, stories from people who've been doing it for years and what it's changed for them, and a stack of ideas for gatherings you could run yourself.