Why you should organize a Street Festival
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Last September I organized a Street Festival. People loved it. I loved it. You would love it too. And you can and should organize one.
There are 3 reasons for it: It benefits your local community, it benefits your organizing team, and it benefits you personally.
Let’s go through each.
It benefits your local community.
First, in the moment, a good Street Festival is just plain fun for everyone. You chill in the sun, get to know each other, and sip a cool drink. There is some music playing in the background. If you want, you start a game of chess. To your left, you see how some kids use chalk to paint weird pictures onto the street, while some other kids play catch, but you know they are actually waiting for their turn on the main attraction: the bouncy castle! You turn your head to the right and see the grandma next door showing a photo album of her life to other neighbors. A good Street Festival is like being in a giant living room. It’s just fun.
Second, people get to know each other. There’s a chance for friendships and romance. Is it not awesome to know that maybe kids will be made because people met because of you?
Third, a community forms. Experiencing your street as a shared living space creates a feeling of home. You feel better in your street, because it’s not just a place it is becoming YOUR place. You and your neighbor down the street don’t just co-exist; you start to co-live. With enough repetition, I think this can create genuine communities of care over time.
It benefits your organizing team.
Most likely, you will have a small organizing team. For our Street Festival, we were around 7 people of varying degree of involvement. Some helped plan the Street Festival, while others helped with decoration on the day itself.
In any case, your organizing team will of course also have fun and meet people. In fact, they will have an easier time meeting people than a regular neighbor. If you’re part of the organizing team, you have reason to go to talk to people.
The biggest benefit, however, is a gain in agency. Many members of my organizing team experienced an afterglow of agency. It was striking how many of them suddenly wanted to organize events themselves. One of them told me: “I somehow feel such a sense of freedom. Like it’s now okay to just DO things.”
It benefits you personally.
I think you will benefit the most. You will have fun and meet a lot of new people. Your agency will get a large boost (You, yes, you, organized a Street Festival. You can do anything!).
On top of that, you will get social credibility for any events you might want to in the future. Need to borrow a tent or some tables? Your local shops know you now and will be more likely to lend them to you.
And lastly, you will make connections with local civic society. Maybe you had asked the city or local political parties to borrow toys for the kids. Now they know you.
So, in addition to being a lot of fun for everyone and genuinely beneficial to your friends and community, organizing a Street Festival can also be a pretty good investment in yourself!
How to do it
I’ll write a more detailed post on it, so let me be very brief here. The goal of a Street Festival is to create a temporary shared living room where neighbors enjoy spending a few hours together. So don’t worry about needing to be professional and having enough snacks.
You need to:
- Decide on a time and place (most likely your street – but where exactly?
- Work with the city: get their approval, have insurance, close off the street,
- Inform your neighbors: make them want to come, remind them to park their cars elsewhere, tell them to bring snacks and drinks, ask if they want to show off their art/music/…
- Do the Street Festival: make the street cozy, have music, have games, have a bouncy castle
Hit me up, I’ll help you!
If you decide to host a Street Festival – and you should! – let me know via Twitter or umer.hayat.adil@gmail.com. I’ll try to help you as much as I can.
And boy, am I gonna cheer you on. ;)
You can do it!
- Umer