Cathelijn de Reede and Jesse Jop Jorg, founders of BenchesCollective loved the idea of stimulating interaction between people on the streets. Their concept was to open pop up benches through the city where anyone can host others, bringing people this way together.
Everyone can open their own bench and decide what do there and offer to passerbyers. It is either way a coffee with a nice cake, bitterbalen or a salsa dance session you will be glad to join.
Bench owners just pin their location on the map of BenchesCollective website and they're already members of this great, city sized open air café.
Do you know your neighbours? We all live ridiculously close to each other and not knowing a thing about the other. Have you ever talked to the guy who you always shop at the same time after work, or the girl from the corner who you almost say hi because crossing each others way in the mornings?
It doesn't matter if it's the next door neighbour or someone from across the street; sitting around, having nice discussions with some snacks will definitely bring people together.
The fantastic thing in BenchesCollective is that the participants are doing it with so much enthusiasm that you can find the coolest activities. The whole idea is similar to Restaurant Day but instead of trying different treats you can knit your gloves, learn to dance salsa or swap clothing articles.
It's simply about the joy of spending time together. And what do you need for it? Some chairs or a bench. Maybe you will serve coffee and a cake, or perhaps play a boardgames with people from the hood but you will definitely have a wonderful time.
So why not try it out already the 3rd of may? Go to their website and Facebook page for planning on opening or just visiting benches!