Beer, live music, and circus acts in De Refter. The first edition of the Radboud Services Festival, which took place last night, drew a lot of attention.

Employees and students who unsuspectingly come to eat their dinner at De Refter look up in surprise. Completely unexpectedly, a red carpet is laid out in front of the door. Where there are normally tables inside, there is now a stage and dancing. Around the corner, people are fiddling with circus props at a workshop. Outside is a hefty grill and some food trucks.

It is all part of the Radboud Services Festival: the party for employees of Radboud Services, the university’s support department.

Around 500 employees of Radboud Services registered for the party. They were given ten free vouchers for dinner and drinks. There are also several surprised students and employees walking around who ended up at the festival by chance.

Door closes

The festival is already starting to fill up around dinnertime. In front of the stage, the first people are dancing to a cover band. ‘I find it great to see people of different departments and students coming together to have a good time’, employee Niels van Roon says enthusiastically.

Getting together is exactly what the organisation had in mind. Until 8 pm, De Refter is open to students and employees not working at Radboud Services. Afterwards the door closes to uninvited guests.

A deliberate choice, organiser Yvonne van Berlo explains. ‘We don’t want to get in the way of other colleagues or students. Hence, they can just get their dinner and enjoy a nice drink if they want.’

The idea behind the party is for employees to reconnect with each other by engaging in conversation in a light-hearted setting, Van Berlo explained.

Craft beer caravan

That conversation ideally arises over a cold drink, they also notice at the craft beer caravan of bierproeven.nu. The caravan is parked outside, at the back of the restaurant. There, staff members René Noijen and Marien de Clercq are talking to each other. ‘About all sorts of things. Especially not about work’, the latter jokes. ‘We worked together some years back, but then went to other departments. So this is the ideal time to catch up again.’

‘Working through computer screens is not for me’

‘It’s nice to be able to see people in real life again’, Noijen adds. ‘Not only here now at the party, but also just at the office. Working through computer screens is not for me, I value personal interaction.’

The organisation had also noticed the lack of personal contact. Van Berlo: ‘In recent years, the mutual connection has diminished because a lot was done remotely. That makes everything a lot more business-like, functional. Through music, acts and workshops, we hope that colleagues will also get to know each other again in an informal way.’

‘In the end, that is also better for cooperation: if you know how someone is put together it increases the understanding of each other. And that, in turn, is good for the trust you have in another person.’

Translated by Jan Scholten.