PLAY · SOLVE · TALK
With Soil to Grow
Manage a farm together in a collaborative card game. Explore biodiversity and climate trade-offs, compare choices, and discover what matters to the people around your table.
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Friendship Fair · Helsinki · Edition 01
Something
might click.
Meet people you might actually want to meet again.
100 people. A one-night social experiment in real human connection.
26 Nov 202617:30–21:30ODDspace, Helsinki
Different people. A different kind of event.
01
This isn't networking.
It isn't
- Random mingling
- Forced fun
- One personality type winning the room
- Four hours pretending friendship happened
It is
- Designed connection
- Playful and curious
- Many ways to participate
- A beginning
Opt in and we'll suggest a few people to meet before or at the Fair — so nobody has to arrive not knowing anyone. And afterwards, community partners host "second meetings": places and groups where you can see each other again, if you clicked at the event. The Friendship Fair is about real connections here, not just introductions. We're offering ways for you to find people you'll actually keep knowing afterwards.
02
Choose your own adventure.
The activities are excuses to meet. Pick how you like to connect — the program rearranges itself.
14 activities shown.
MAKE · SHARE
With Seed Art Studio
Paint postcards and bookmarks using hand-foraged Nordic wild inks — alder cone, acorn cap, bilberry. Make something to keep, or gift it to someone you meet.
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MAKE · SHARE · TALK
With Honey · Dyke Haus Helsinki
Pair up with a stranger and draw each other while asking questions. Zero drawing skills required — just an excuse to look, laugh, and leave with a memento.
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MAKE · EAT · SHARE
With Zestii Kitchens
Make hand-wrapped Japanese rice balls together, discovering each other's favorite fillings. Then try a blind tasting of unexpected herbal and grain teas — buckwheat, corn, and burdock.
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TALK · SHARE · EXPLORE
With Senni Moilanen & Katri Vuori
What does friendship mean to you? A Me-We-Us visual card exercise gives you space to think for yourself, exchange perspectives, and discover connections beyond shared hobbies.
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MOVE
With Benevolent Mischief
A 45-minute disco. No choreography. No performance. Just enough time to stop thinking about whether you should dance and actually dance.
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MAKE · CONTRIBUTE
With FloweRescue
Get your hands busy making bouquets for charity. Make something beautiful. Talk to whoever happens to be making something beside you.
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SOLVE
Facilitated by Empact
Some people connect best when there's a real problem on the table. So we're giving them one — and the space to work on it together.
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PLAY
Games provided by GTC Cafe (Helsinki)
Games have a useful habit of revealing people much faster than small talk does. Low stakes, shared laughter, no polished introductions required.
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SHARE · TALK
Hosted by UPWARD
Bring a book you loved. Leave with one someone else loved. The conversation about why is the real exchange.
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SHARE · EAT · TALK
Hosted by UPWARD
Swap the dish you'd cook for a friend — and the story that comes with it.
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EXPLORE · TALK
Hosted by UPWARD, with Wonder
Open prompts, shared questions, and a board that shows where your curiosity overlaps with someone else's.
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LISTEN · SHARE
Hosted by UPWARD
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EAT · TALK · CHILL
Throughout the evening
Food. Sofas. Quiet corners. Conversations. You don't have to be doing an activity every minute for the evening to be working.
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THE EVENING
The arc of the night.
17:30–18:10
Arrival & Settling In
Come in, orient to the evening, meet people you were pre-matched with, find old & new friends, check out our community partners & the snacks they're providing.
- Pre-matched hellos
- Community partner tables
18:10–18:45
Welcome & Social Warm-Ups
No forced networking or awkward activities; opt for whatever feels best for you.
- + More being confirmed!
18:45–19:30
Bites and Social Bits
Connect over food — eating or making it — with varied options and dietary considerations in mind.
- Shared dinner
19:35–20:25
Deeper Dives & Creative Sparks
Conversations, making, and solving to give you something to think about and carry with you after the event.
- + More being confirmed!
20:30–21:15
The Social Send-Off
Larger activities and memorable moments to help you connect around community.
21:15–21:30
Chit-Chat & Close
You don't have to go home, but unless you're helping to clean up, you do have to skedaddle from here by 21:30. Take your care packs with you, with notes and offers from our community partners.
- Care packs
- Lingering conversations
Schedule and experiences are subject to change.
ALL EVENING
Always open. Never required.
There are quiet corners to retreat to, and low-pressure, unfacilitated experiences you can just pop into — take a break, or have a tiny conversation around.
Hosted by UPWARD
Book Swap
Bring a book for the Book Swap.
Hosted by UPWARD
Recipe Exchange
Leave a favorite recipe or food memory on the Recipe Exchange.
Hosted by UPWARD
Shared Soundtrack
Add a track to the Shared Soundtrack.
Hosted by UPWARD
Curiosity Corner
Browse the Wonder board, asking and answering questions from other attendees.
The evening is not the outcome.
The evening creates the possibility.
The question is what still exists a month later: a second coffee, a recurring plan, a project, a standing invitation.
03
Can we make finding our people less random?
The Fair is the middle of a three-part study — a short pre-survey, the evening itself, and follow-ups at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 and 6 months — asking what predicts resonance and continuation, not just meeting.
01
Person × Person
What actually makes two adults want to see each other again — beyond shared demographics or shared interests on paper?
02
Person × Context
How much of connection is the room? Timing, food, noise, structure, permission — what conditions make people show up as themselves?
03
Continuity
What turns a good evening into an actual friendship? Where does momentum survive the walk home?
Your private Connection Profile shapes your suggestions. Raw answers stay private — the Fair only ever sees your Research ID.
Start your Connection ProfileAdmit one · Edition 01
The first room is only built once.
Five ticket prices, one shared experience. Sponsor and Supporter tickets unlock additional Community and Discounted tickets — and nobody else ever sees what you paid.
26.11.2026
GET YOUR TICKET04
Help make 100 new connections possible.
The Friendship Fair is being built with people and organisations who believe cities need better conditions for connection.
Sponsor access. Bring food or drink. Support an experience. Help build the room.
PARTNER WITH USSponsor the Fair
Financial sponsorship improves the evening, eases the host's financial burden, and helps make another edition possible.
Feed it, or host a second meeting
In-kind contributions are welcome: food or drink, materials, an attendee perk, or a place where people can meet again afterwards.
Volunteer
Be part of the crew that makes the evening run — and meet everyone along the way.
100 people. One evening.
GET TICKETS