October 01, 2024
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
The Friendship Bus will be stopped at LOVE Park on Oct. 15 to help people find connections.
A mobile bonding experience is rolling into Philadelphia this month to help people connect.
The Friendship Bus, which has about 50 seats, invites guests to come aboard and strike up conversations with the help from prompts provided by the staff, who will strategically move participants around to maximize opportunities for them to meet a new buddy. The bus will be stopped at LOVE Park on Oct. 15 and then drive around the city Oct. 16.
The bus was created by Flash Pack, a U.K.-based company that organizes trips for single people in their 30s and 40s looking for traveling companions. Philly is the third stop on a four-city U.S. tour.
"It's literally about getting people who don't know each other — and who might not connect in normal, everyday life — just to have conversations with each other," Flash Pack co-founder Lee Thompson said.
The prompts will include questions, like "What's your favorite karaoke song?" to "How are you really doing?"
Thompson believe the bus is a means to help the loneliness epidemic that affects about half of American adults.
"This is quite a serious problem, and it's a very fun spin on making it less of a taboo and more opening people's eyes as to what new friendship can do for them," Thompson said. "... There's no greater way to (having) strong mental health than making new friends."
Oct. 15-16 | 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Free
LOVE Park | 1569 John F Kennedy Blvd.
