Street Parties Build Community and Make Friends

The advantages are getting people out of their houses and helping neighbors get to know one another. At least in prosperous societies where electricity and sophisticated transportation and utility networks allow people to isolate themselves with their immediate families, that's becoming more and more rare.

But knowing the people nearby helps build social capital, which means that your network of friends gets to know part or all of another network, and so forth. Social capital helps the community when it needs to pull together to accomplish common goals. It facilitates spreading the word about good causes but also helps people care about people outside their immediate circle of acquaintances.

Below you can submit your experiences of community-building street parties, festivals, and block parties.

Before the form, let's give you a few ideas to get started:

1. By all means, try to convince your town or city to allow you to block off the street from traffic. Most of the compromises we've seen were quite unsuccessful and very frustrating to the motorist in the end.

2. Like all parties, the food must be evident, abundant, and good. End of story. But for outdoor events, the aroma itself is especially important, which is why unless you have a well-established party where everyone participates, you might think of grilling meat or at least aromatic vegetables.

3. If your party is meant to build acquaintance among neighbors, perhaps to help with a neighborhood watch, you may want to be fairly strict to limit attendance to your immediate area. Other parties, of course, are huge and are aimed at neighborhood public relations, street animation, or the economic development that comes as a result of a major festival.

4. Do take care to reach out to people likely to be inconvenienced by this event, either because they will lose business due to customers being unable to reach them, or perhaps because they are nearby residents who will hear the noise and have to pick up the litter that you miss.

Been to a Great Street Party? Or Given One?

Tell us what made this party or festival in a street or streets great. What was distinctive? Did it build neighborliness? Or was it more about enjoying the atmosphere or getting outdoors?

What Other Visitors Have Sent

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