--- title: You Can Now Play in a Giant Ball Pit While Drinking a Beer description: A San Francisco-based nonprofit, has combined the best parts of childhood and adulthood to create the first-ever "ball pit bar." canonical: https://time.com/4272527/ball-pit-bar-san-francisco/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-25T19:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:10.118Z og:title: You Can Now Play in a Giant Ball Pit While Drinking a Beer og:description: Or three og:url: https://time.com/4272527/ball-pit-bar-san-francisco/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You Can Now Play in a Giant Ball Pit While Drinking a Beer twitter:description: Or three twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # You Can Now Play in a Giant Ball Pit While Drinking a Beer  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 25, 2016 7:00 PM CUT  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 25, 2016 7:00 PM CUT [Forward Motion](https://www.facebook.com/ForwardMotionSF/?fref=nf "undefined"), a San Francisco-based nonprofit, has combined the [best parts of childhood](http://time.com/3379460/worlds-coolest-playgrounds/ "undefined") and adulthood to create the first-ever “ball pit bar.” The pop-up event, which required attendees to be 21 years or older, was hosted at a cocktail lounge called Romper Room from March 19-20. Ryan Lum, Forward Motion’s founder, [told Mashable](http://mashable.com/2016/03/22/forward-motion-ball-pit-bar/?utm%5Fcid=mash-com-Tw-main-link#BLvgSnWeCgq6 "undefined") that finding funding for the party was the most difficult aspect of planning it. “It took a little over a year to actually make it happen as the biggest obstacle was trying to raise enough money to purchase 40,000 [ball pit balls](http://time.com/3940648/maymo-beagle-ball-pit/ "undefined"),” he said. “After several failed crowdfunding attempts, I decided to just start selling tickets to \[the\] event that didn’t even exist. It took a long time trying to raise the money but it was all worth it in the end.” **Read More:** [Watch a Guy Surprise His Girlfriend by Turning Their House into a Giant Ball Pit](http://time.com/3674421/house-ball-pit-prank/ "undefined") Lum also said that reactions to the event were extremely positive. “I talked to many of the attendees as they left the [ball pit](http://time.com/3265096/pug-in-ball-pit/ "undefined") with a huge smile on their faces. I overheard people saying things like, ‘my inner child is so happy right now.’ People loved the idea \[and\] wanted to know if there will be more.” Forward Motion is already planning a second ball pit blowout that will be held at the San Francisco nightclub Monarch in April. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4272527/ball-pit-bar-san-francisco/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4272527/ball-pit-bar-san-francisco/"},"headline":"You Can Now Play in a Giant Ball Pit While Drinking a Beer","datePublished":"2016-03-25T19:00:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:10.118Z","description":"Or three","url":"https://time.com/4272527/ball-pit-bar-san-francisco/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Alcohol","San Francisco","Business topic","drinking","bars","Weird News"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4272527/ball-pit-bar-san-francisco/","name":"You Can Now Play in a Giant Ball Pit While Drinking a Beer"}}]}] ```