A couple of weekends ago, we celebrated our sixth birthday by coordinating more than 100 simultaneous Raspberry Jam events around the world. The Big Birthday Weekend was a huge success: our fantastic community organised Jams in 40 countries, covering six continents!

We sent the Jams special birthday kits to help them celebrate in style, and a video message featuring a thank you from Philip and Eben:

The Raspberry Jam photo booth

I put together code for a Pi-powered photo booth which overlaid the Big Birthday Weekend logo onto photos and (optionally) tweeted them. We included an arcade button in the Jam kits so they could build one — and it seemed to be quite popular. Some Jams put great effort into housing their photo booth:

Here are some of my favourite photo booth tweets:

#PiParty photo booth @RGVSA & @ @Nerdvana_io #Rjam pic.twitter.com/1R9svDuakS

— RGVSA (@RGVSA) March 4, 2018

The @SouthendRPIJams #PiParty photo booth pic.twitter.com/guMReG3bGE

— Denis Stretton (@DenisStr) March 4, 2018

#PiParty photo booth pic.twitter.com/fi7NydFcKK

— rpijamtokyo (@rpijamtokyo) March 4, 2018

Preston Raspberry Jam Photobooth #RJam #PiParty pic.twitter.com/tT6esYAOY8

— Preston #RJam (@PrestonRJam) March 5, 2018

If you want to try out the photo booth software yourself, find the code on GitHub.

The great Raspberry Jam bake-off

Traditionally, in the UK, people have a cake on their birthday. And we had a few! We saw (and tasted) a great selection of Pi-themed cakes and other baked goods throughout the weekend:

Raspberry Jams everywhere

We always say that every Jam is different, but there’s a common and recognisable theme amongst them. It was great to see so many different venues around the world filling up with like-minded Pi enthusiasts, Raspberry Jam–branded banners, and Raspberry Pi balloons!

Europe

Thank you so much to all the attendees of the Ikana Jam in Krakow past Saturday! We shared fun experiences, some of them… also painful ;) A big thank you to @Raspberry_Pi for these global celebrations! And a big thank you to @hubraum for their hospitality! #PiParty #rjam pic.twitter.com/7lcNN4ib6q

— Sergio Martinez (@mg_sergio) March 6, 2018

We also had a super successful set of wearables workshops using @adafruit Circuit Playground Express boards and conductive thread at today's @Raspberry_Pi Jam!
Very popular!#PiParty pic.twitter.com/j8RLk8L9E2

— Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam (@NIRaspJam) March 3, 2018

My SenseHAT workshop, going well! @SouthendRPiJams #PiParty pic.twitter.com/8kt8weh2HN

— Jasmine S. Thompson (@SuzySceptile) March 4, 2018

Learning how to scare the zombies in case of an apocalypse- it worked on our young learners #PiParty @worksopcollege @Raspberry_Pi pic.twitter.com/pntEm57TJl

— Worksop College Raspberry Jam (@worksopjam) March 4, 2018

Africa

Being one of the two places in Kenya where the #PiParty took place, it was an amazing time spending the day with this team and getting to learn and have fun. @TaitaTavetaUni and @Raspberry_Pi thank you for your support. @TTUTechlady @mictecttu ch pic.twitter.com/g4PoNwkySe

— Miss Kaniaru (@missKaniaru) March 3, 2018

pic.twitter.com/UwR7zEFzpj

— GABRIEL ONIFADE (@GABONIAVERACITY) March 5, 2018

@GABONIAVERACITY #PiParty
Lagos Raspberry Jam 2018 Special International Celebration – 6th Raspberry-Pi Big Birthday!
Lagos Nigeria @Raspberry_Pi @ben_nuttall #RJam #RaspberryJam #raspberrypi #physicalcomputing #robotics #edtech #coding #programming #edTechAfrica #veracityhouse pic.twitter.com/V7yLxaYGNx

— GABRIEL ONIFADE (@GABONIAVERACITY) March 5, 2018

North America

The Riverside Raspberry Jam @Vocademy is underway! #piparty pic.twitter.com/Vl2LXTjk0z

— Heidi Baynes, Ed.D. (@BaynesHeidi) March 3, 2018

The Philly & Pi #PiParty event with @Bresslergroup and @TechGirlzorg was awesome! The Scratch and Pi workshop was amazing! It was overall a great day of fun and tech!!! Thank you everyone who came out! pic.twitter.com/aH9urzROOE

— Brad Derstine (@bradderstine) March 5, 2018

Thanks everyone who came out to the @Raspberry_Pi Big Birthday Jam! Special thanks to @PBFerrell @estefanniegg @pcsforme @pandafulmanda @colnels @bquentin3 couldn’t’ve put on this amazing community event without you guys! pic.twitter.com/BxQdlgNaio

— Houston Raspi (@houraspi) March 3, 2018

We are back at @SciTechMuseum for the second day of @OttawaPiJam! Our robot Mergius loves playing catch with the kids! #pijam #piparty #omgrobots pic.twitter.com/WAayFEk6XM

— Merge Robotics 2706 (@frc2706) March 10, 2018

South America

Así terminamos el #Raspberry Jam Big Birthday Weekend #Bogota 2018 #PiParty de #RaspberryJamBogota 2018 @Raspberry_Pi
Nos vemos el 7 de marzo en #ArduinoDayBogota 2018 y #RaspberryJamBogota 2018 pic.twitter.com/HEVPvMSNFF

— Javier Garzón (@Javiertecteos) March 5, 2018

Asia

Happy 6th birthday, @Raspberry_Pi! Greetings all the way from CEBU,PH! #PiParty #IoTCebu Thanks @CebuXGeeks X Ramos for these awesome pics. #Fablab #UPCebu pic.twitter.com/RRWBAwFv5B

— Fablab UP Cebu (@fablabupcebu) March 3, 2018

ラズパイ、6才のお誕生日会スタート in Tokyo
PCNブースで、いろいろ展示とhttps://t.co/L6E7KgyNHFとIchigoJamつないだ、こどもIoTハッカソンmini体験やってます
at 東京蒲田駅近https://t.co/yHEuqXHvqe#piparty #pipartytokyo #rjam #opendataday pic.twitter.com/DBldxTx2kD

— 福野泰介 (@taisukef) March 3, 2018

Happy birthday @Raspberry_Pi! #piparty #iotcebu @coolnumber9 pic.twitter.com/2ESVjfRJ2d

— Ren Stanforth (@TheMrsStanforth) March 3, 2018

Oceania

#PiParty photo booth pic.twitter.com/Lvrg6fElw1

— Glenunga Raspberry Pi Club (@GlenungaPiClub) March 4, 2018

Personally, I managed to get to three Jams over the weekend: two run by the same people who put on the first two Jams to ever take place, and also one brand-new one! The Preston Raspberry Jam team, who usually run their event on a Monday evening, wanted to do something extra special for the birthday, so they came up with the idea of putting on a Raspberry Jam Sandwich — on the Friday and Monday around the weekend! This meant I was able to visit them on Friday, then attend the Manchester Raspberry Jam on Saturday, and finally drop by the new Jam at Worksop College on my way home on Sunday.

I'm at my first Raspberry Jam #PiParty event of the big birthday weekend! @PrestonRJam has been running for nearly 6 years and is a great place to start the celebrations! pic.twitter.com/mz1ApqV3VF

— Ben Nuttall (@ben_nuttall) March 2, 2018

Back at @McrRaspJam at @DigInnMMU for #PiParty pic.twitter.com/swGrImPBMN

— Ben Nuttall (@ben_nuttall) March 3, 2018

Great to see mine & @Frans_facts Balloon Pi-Tay popper project in action at @worksopjam #rjam #PiParty pic.twitter.com/GswFm0UuPg

— Ben Nuttall (@ben_nuttall) March 4, 2018

Various members of the Foundation team attended Jams around the UK and US, and James from the Code Club International team visited AmsterJam.

Thanks to everyone who came to our Jam and everyone who helped out. @phoenixtogether thanks for amazing cake & hosting. Ademir you're so cool. It was awesome to meet Craig Morley from @Raspberry_Pi too. #PiParty pic.twitter.com/kGMieDlmnw

— hackerfemo (@hackerfemo) March 4, 2018

Great #PiParty today at the @cotswoldjam with bloody delicious cake and lots of raspberry goodness. Great to see @ClareSutcliffe @martinohanlon playing on my new pi powered arcade build:-) pic.twitter.com/MZuvRu9meg

— Stuart Fox (@stuartfoxmusic) March 4, 2018

Happy 6th Birthday @Raspberry_Pi from everyone at the #PiParty at #cotswoldjam in Cheltenham! pic.twitter.com/MztpcQP1Lc

— Clare Sutcliffe MBE (@ClareSutcliffe) March 4, 2018

It's @Raspberry_Pi 6th birthday and we're celebrating by taking part in @amsterjam__! Happy Birthday Raspberry Pi, we're so happy to be a part of the family! #PiParty pic.twitter.com/u0tbIbpePL

— Code Club Global (@CodeClubGlobal) March 4, 2018

For more Jammy birthday goodness, check out the PiParty hashtag on Twitter!

The Jam makers!

A lot of preparation went into each Jam, and we really appreciate all the hard work the Jam makers put in to making these events happen, on the Big Birthday Weekend and all year round. Thanks also to all the teams that sent us a group photo:

Lots of the Jams that took place were brand-new events, so we hope to see them continue throughout 2018 and beyond, growing the Raspberry Pi community around the world and giving more people, particularly youths, the opportunity to learn digital making skills.

So many wonderful people in the @Raspberry_Pi community. Thanks to everyone at #PottonPiAndPints for a great afternoon and for everything you do to help young people learn digital making. #PiParty pic.twitter.com/VX6Mljk1AP

— Philip Colligan 🧢 (@philipcolligan) March 3, 2018

Special thanks to ModMyPi for shipping the special Raspberry Jam kits all over the world!

Don’t forget to check out our Jam page to find an event near you! This is also where you can find free resources to help you get a new Jam started, and download free starter projects made especially for Jam activities. These projects are available in English, Français, Français Canadien, Nederlands, Deutsch, Italiano, and 日本語. If you’d like to help us translate more content into these and other languages, please get in touch!

PS Some of the UK Jams were postponed due to heavy snowfall, so you may find there’s a belated sixth-birthday Jam coming up where you live!

Ours was rescheduled until later in the Spring due to the snow but here is Babbage enjoying the snow! pic.twitter.com/JLHEQ0eBth

— MakerCupboard (@makercupboard) March 5, 2018