Het Humanistisch Verbond strives for a society in which everyone can be who they are and care for one another. After developing the new brand strategy, summed up in the following guiding principle ‘dicht bij jezelf en dicht bij de ander.’ (Closer to yourself, closer to the other)  we got the challenge to bring this idea into the physical world. Not by explaining it. But by making people live it.

The entry point of the festival activation was deliberately familiar. A photo booth. Everyone knows what to do; you step in, you smile, and wait for your photo outside the booth. Except this booth has other plans. Inside, participants chose the humanist value closest to their heart and take their selfie. When they step out the back, they received a photo. But it is a stranger’s face.

That single disruption set everything in motion. Two people, somewhere on a festival ground, both slightly lost, both holding a photo of someone they‘d never met. And so their mission: find yourself by finding the other. What follows is an often slightly awkward, sometimes hilarious, entirely human moment; two strangers meeting. The awkwardness was the point. The coincidence was the point. Dicht bij jezelf, dicht bij de ander wasn’t written on a banner. It was happening, live, between two strangers who suddenly had a reason to talk.

Most people who walked into the booth didn‘t consider themselves humanists. But in reality, most of them already are. Most people believe in personal autonomy, in human connection, in finding meaning without dogma. They just didn’t have a word for it yet. The booth didn’t introduce them to an ideology. It showed them, in a funny manor, something they already recognised in themselves.

After the festival season the activation had gone slightly viral. Resulting in new members, newsletter subscribers, significant social media growth, even a few romantic engagements occurred. Following this the activation is now actively programmed as part of festivals official lineup, in stead of being charged a placement fee. Some KPIs you set. Others you just get to be proud of. And maybe, just maybe, we can expect a humanistic baby in 2026?