Each year, across the world of Wild Rumpus and Just So, one animal family rules! The victors in the carnival of the animals, celebrated and honoured from one Just So Festival to the next. Since their glorious victory in 2024, Fish have ruled over hills and shores. But now, as Just So Festival 2026 dawns, that’s all about to change!
Welcome to the Grand Just So Election! Under 18s only! Cast your vote for your favourite animal family. Will the bees buzz their way to victory? Will the frogs leap ahead? Or will the stags, lions, foxes or owls win your allegiance?
The Just So animal families are fish, frogs, stags, lions, bees, foxes and owls. Dress up in all your glory to show which animal family you are part of.
How it works
When you collect your festival wristbands, all children will be given a polling card. Hold it close, don’t lose it, whatever you do!
The polling station will be open in the The Rumpus from 10am on Saturday until 3pm on Sunday. You’ll swap your polling card for a ballot paper, and go into a polling booth to make a cross and cast your vote, then put your ballot paper into one of the colourful ballot boxes.
Playful election guides will be on hand to help you find your way around the election. Sticklers for the rules, they’ll be keeping things in order.
Electioneering, campaigning, rallying and propaganda will be gloriously welcomed all weekend, as you choose who to vote for, and try to turn the votes of others.
The current ruling party (this year, the fish) will not be on the ballot paper. Just think of all those persuadable fish, with votes to cast in another direction…
Pollsters will be surveying the mood on camp, and displaying their predictions, writ large, atop the polling station as votes are underway. Notoriously unreliable, will they be able to predict the winners?
When the polls close, we wait! The ballot boxes will be opened, votes counted and verified, in preparation for the grandest of announcements, as the carnival of the animals gathers!
Join your animal family at their carnival meeting point:
Fish – Moon Cove
Frogs – The Hollow
Bees – Peekaboo
Owls – Campfire Social
Stags – Craftivism
Foxes – The Shindig
Lions – The Social
Then march to the polling station, where we’ll find out the winners. Who will rule until Just So Festival 2027? Who will we be holding a wild party for next year? Who will be honoured and celebrated all year (including their own glorious glowing area at Yuletide 2026)?
The stakes are high, so vote!
What about golden pebbles?
Don’t worry, we’re not getting rid of golden pebbles! They’re important, sacred artefacts at Just So. For many years golden pebbles were the currency of victory. Jokes were told, cartwheels were turned, and fish, frogs and owls won glorious victories.
Golden pebbles are powerful, glittering, glimmering treasures. Their magic is eternal and endless, and keeps all the rest of the magic and wonder in our world alive.
Once they were abundant, pebbles and magic everywhere. But they are more scarce now than ever before. Gone are the days when we filled our pockets, dropping them and spilling them as we laughed and played. Now they are precious and rare, just when their protective powers are needed more than ever. Hold your pebbles safe. Wherever dark forces swirl, their bright golden energy keeps them at bay.
Perhaps you’ve never been into our world before, never held a gold pebble in your hand, never felt the bright power of the pebble reverberate through your body. At Just So Festival you will. Visit the Elders in The Hollow to find out the secrets of the golden pebbles, how to receive one, and what happens next. Good luck!
