Sorry kids! A plan to bring children of all ages to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park as the region celebrates the United States’ 250th birthday is not going to come to fruition in the summer of 2026.
“Unfortunately, after more than a year of collaboration and creative energy, Please Touch Museum, the Mann Center for Performing Arts, and the Philadelphia Zoo have made the difficult yet necessary decision to discontinue our efforts to debut a Children’s World’s Fair (CWF) in the Centennial District in 2026,” the Fairmount Park venues said in a Feb. 25, 2025, statement attributed to Melissa Weiler Gerber and Tracy Curvan of the Please Touch Museum; Catherine Cahill of the Mann Center for Performing Arts and Jo-Elle Mogerman of the Philadelphia Zoo.
Back in April 2024, the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial posted a Philadelphia Inquirer Article titled “a Children’s World Fair may be the next big thing coming to Philadelphia.”
The Please Touch Musuem, Zoo and the Mann teamed up at that time to “explore the possibility” of a children’s event that would run along with America’s 250th birthday, the MLB All-Star Game and the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Philadelphia, the report said.
“No doubt, there was great enthusiasm from both public and private partners in this exciting, first-of-its-kind concept, especially given the potential for CWF to inspire children to become changemakers of the future while positioning the City as a champion and convener of children who want to build their world – and their futures – together,” the statement continued. “However, the highly competitive and challenging funding landscape surrounding 2026 and the remaining time available to execute on our original vision simply made moving forward impossible.”
The event was set to take place from May through mid-July next year, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
A fair of any kind in Fairmount Park for the Semiquincentennial would have been a full circle moment considering the western part of Fairmount Park hosted the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition.
“The Children’s World Fair would have been held in Fairmount Park, the same site where the 1876 World’s Fair, also known as the Centennial International Exhibition, gathered nearly 10 million people over a seven-month period to discuss cultural and technological innovation,” the Philadelphia Business Journal reported last week.
There will be no second act aimed at kids this time around, something would-be organizers admitted was “disappointing.”
“On behalf of our respective institutions, we appreciate your interest in our original vision as we worked tirelessly to bring it to fruition,” the Centennial District heads said. “While we are disappointed that the Children’s World’s Fair will not be part of the 2026 Semiquincentennial Celebration, we know that its intention – and focus on children as changemakers – remain critical to our nation’s future.”
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