11 Jun Friendship is an invisible elastic thread

As soon as we get off the metro, narrow streams of people form, merging left and right into broader currents that swell again into a slow river. The river bends around buildings, splits at an advertising column, pushes against the enormous tub known as the Arena, and then slows down in front of the entrance to the Ziggo Dome. In the middle of the crowd, I stop Vero and say: ‘Three-quarters of a year ago, you played me the music of Rüfüs du Sol for the first time and said it would be awesome to dance to it together. I looked up where and when they were performing. That was May 6 and 7 in Amsterdam. And now here we are.’ Vero lives in Montpellier. She is a Zen friend. She smiles.

Hypnotizing voice
Slowly, we shuffle through the hall into the room. I always experience merging into a mass with a certain shiver. Is it because such a crowd can react unpredictably like a growling beast? Is it because the mass makes you feel so insignificant? In the noisy and restless space where we stand close together, the crowd melts together. We are drawn in by the singer’s ethereal, hypnotic voice, by the deep drums and basses that make our bodies tremble, by the sometimes piercing tones, which then become soft and harmonizing again. Vero is making videos and I dance in the tight open spaces that present themselves to me in ever-changing forms.

True friends
After the concert, we walk back to the metro arm in arm. Vero and I have known each other for ages. ‘Friendship is the most precious thing there is,’ says Vero.

Friendship is like an invisible elastic thread. It bends with the circumstances. Sometimes it is an embrace. Sometimes it is a tapestry of words woven together. Sometimes it is a safety net or a listening ear. But above all, it is a warm feeling of connection.

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch