Joy in Community at Bloemhof Festival

Big smiles. Live music. Friendly faces offering me delicious food. And all of this on an unusually sunny Saturday afternoon, by Dutch standards. There was not much more I could have hoped for when embarking on a journey to the heart of Rotterdam South to experience the joyful ensemble of community engagement and locally sourced creativity that had materialised at the Putseplein.

For the second year in a row, the Bloemhof neighbourhood has collaborated with the Rotterdam municipality and EU funded project Cultuur&Campus Putselaan to organise the Bloemhof Festival, a merry afternoon full of fun and enriching activities ran for and by the local community. It included delicious food stands where people shared their cuisines with their neighbours, fun activities for the children like an obstacle course and a face-painting stand, and all kinds of terrific live acts. The place was expectedly packed throughout the day and talking to the visitors, I quickly learned that many of the inhabitants regularly participated in a variety of other community activities and events.

It did not take long for me to understand why the community is so tightly knit. I was offered fries by a young man the second I sat down to take a breather, a child excitedly asked me to help catch their balloon while I was walking by, and it was difficult not to have a pleasant conversation at every corner I turned. People’s open attitudes invite you to care about them and to get to know them, and although this community- focused setting might have helped, I can’t help but feel that the atmosphere of the event was rooted in the neighbourhood’s spirit. Stands raising awareness of opportunities such as legal aid and volunteering projects further demonstrated people’s commitment to helping one another, while also providing practical utility for older attendees. More practical features, additional seating, and marketing the event as a networking opportunity successfully led to the festival being more generationally diverse than its last rendition.

Seeing all generations of the neighbourhood come together to not only have fun and get to know each other, but also to be introduced to artistic and sustainable practices in that environment, was wonderful to witness, regardless of the long-term impact This invites us to question how much these practices showcased at the event, like upcycling one’s own clothes or self-expression through performance, are extended into the participants’ daily lives. Although I cannot provide a conclusive answer, my conversations with the people there have led me to believe that Bloemhof Festival’s approach goes a long way. Turning important topics and opportunities into games and performances created by and experienced with our peers brings the concepts close to mind and associates them with fond memories. Including neighbours, elderly, and children makes the issues more intergenerational, hopefully sparking conversation at the dinner table and making it easier for people to incorporate these new interests into their lives.

By: Matthijs Schut, Green Team Intern

About Cultuur&Campus Putselaan

Imagine a sustainable place where people come together, conduct research, and create culture. A place where you can learn, get inspired, undertake and where new ideas come to life. Before the end of the project in 2025, Culture&Campus Putselaan (C&CP), located in the heart of Rotterdam South on Putselaan, will open its doors. But before that time comes, there is already much planned. 

The project is a collaboration between Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Municipality of Rotterdam, Codarts Rotterdam, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (Willem de Kooning Academy and Institute for the Built Environment), Afrikaanderwijk Cooperative, Buzinezzclub, ICLEI, and ELIA. C&CP project is a Horizon Europe Funded New European Bauhaus Lighthouse Demonstrator.   

More information at putselaan.nl