JoyCon: A Festival for Joy
JoyCon is a festival that my friend Cyan Banister and I have been dreaming about for years. For a few days in January 2027, San Francisco becomes a playground of experiences that bring you back to your presence, your intuition, and maybe even into your childhood self. We have prototyped dozens of experiences and are excited to share them with you (from stonefruit omakases to Joy Safaris with no map and no phone to Magic Glasses dinners to even a Living Funeral. Each experience is a ride. Each ride is a recipe for connection. Some rides are ours. Many will be made by the people who come (you!).
JoyCon is an experiment. We're testing people are excited about a theme park whose only product is people finding each other and themselves.
With joy and onwards,
Mike "Wonka" Wang & Cyan "Poppins" Banister
Why a Theme Park for Connection (from Mike)
I've spent my career building theme parks for connection. I didn't always call them that. At Minerva, the park was a university that moved through cities. At Long Journey, it's the founder experience: haircuts that change how people see themselves, retreats, and rituals that help founders remember who they are. Each one was a single ride inside a bigger park I hadn't built yet.
The belief underneath is simple. Experiences should work like magic glasses (I learned this from Cyan). You put them on, and you leave seeing the world, or yourself, a little differently. Theme parks already know how to design for wonder. They choreograph arrival, anticipation, surprise and the walk home. They just point all of it at spectacle. I want to point it at connection.
The vision is a place in San Francisco, open year-round, built for authentic connection. JoyCon is the pop-up version!