Five kilometre jog before breakfast, an hour devoted to reading alongside fellow book lovers, listening to your favourite album or a lovely dinner with people you’ve just met. There’s a growing apetite for gatherings built around a shared purpose that don’t require organising a whole group of friends every time. Not necesarrily because we desperately need a new hobby, but simply because going out and spending time with others intentionally is a really good thing. You can show up on your own, and use the shared interest as a conversations’ starting point. There’s a practical aspect to it as well- instead of spending days traing to coordinate everyone’s schedule via Messenger groupchat, you can just choose something that fits your schedule.
But first, A Jog Here and There
Run clubs are among the most visible examples of how an activity traditionally associated with individual training can become a regular social gathering. Running remains the starting point, but not everyone turns up solely to beat their personal best. For many, the community and routine are equally important. As a result, not only the route becomes more familiar but so do the faces seen there.
These groups typically have a regular meeting day and location, a set distance and, when numbers allow, several paces to choose from. In Warsaw, for instance, Social Running Club organizes group runs in Skaryszewski Park and along the Vistula. Shorter routes are available, and the athletic nature of the gatherings is complemented by conversation and other shared activities. Meanwhile, in Kraków, Run Club TMM hosts free, open-to-all runs bringing the runners together on Błonia and along the Vistula. In both cases, all it takes is finding the mos appealing session for you.
Perhaps that’s precisely why run clubs have become such a natural part of the urban landscape. A few kilometres before breakfast or after work are more and more often becoming another way to spend time together, alongside going to the cinema, meeting for dinner or attending a concert.
Reading as a Social Experience
Reading parties take reading out of the living room and into cafés, gardens and hotel spaces, where people with a wide variety of book genres gather side by side. Everyone reads their own title at their own pace, so there’s no need to know the chosen reading material in advance or prepare for a discussion. You can spend an hour immersed in your own story, then close the book and stay for a conversation or an exchange of recommendations.
That’s the idea behind Reading Get-Together, a series hosted by PURO. The gatherings take place in the brand’s hotel spaces, including in Warsaw and Kraków: on the MUND patio at PURO Warszawa Stare Miasto, at Loreta Bar in PURO Warszawa Centrum, and at MAK at PURO Kraków Kazimierz. Participants can bring a book of their own or choose from a selection curated by partner publishers, including Tajfuny and Karakter. DJ sets accompany the gatherings, and once the reading session comes to an end, there’s time for conversation and book recommendations.
In this setting, reading becomes a way to share an afternoon or evening, too. Everyone remains absorbed in their own stories, yet the act of reading itself becomes part of a collective experience.
Listening Together
Listening parties tap into a desire to engage with music more attentively. In everyday life, albums often split into individual tracks, playlists and snippets played in the background while we get on with other things. Here, the album as a whole takes centre stage once again. Participants listen to a record in the sequence intended by the artist, giving themselves the space to appreciate its sound, transitions and the way individual tracks come together to form a cohesive narrative.
In the capital, Warsaw Creative Club runs its own series of listening sessions at Płyty Gramofonowe, a record shop on Ząbkowska Street. Albums played on the record player have included Currents by Tame Impala, Is This It by The Strokes, IGOR by Tyler, the Creator, and DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny. Each edition has its own character. Some leave more room for conversation along the way, while others place the emphasis firmly on the listening experience itself.
There’s something reminiscent of the cozy album-listening sessions once held in people’s homes, now transplanted into urban spaces and opened up to a wider audience. Music stops being background noise and becomes the main event of the evening once more.
Around the Table
A proper dinner together has been a centerpiece of social gatherings for ages. Today, however, it more frequently serves as a starting point for events congregating people who have never met before. Culinary pop-ups, chef-led dinners and special-occasion brunches are gaining popularity. Often one-off affairs, they feature menus created through collaborations between chefs, tailored to a particular venue and its guests.
One example is PURO x BAKEN: Cooking Tour, a series of culinary gatherings that visited Kraków, Gdańsk, Warsaw, Łódź and Poznań in 2026. The concept was led by Michał Toczyłowski from BAKEN, who joined forces with chefs from PURO’s restaurants to create unique „four-handed” dinners and brunches. Each instalment had its own distinct character, with menus based on local produce, seasonal ingredients and culinary influences associated with the host city.It allowed guests to taste dishes created spefically for the occasion and discover different approaches to cooking, all around the same table.
Culinary pop-ups bring an element of surprise to the familiar ritual of sharing a meal. Exclusive menus, unexpected flavour combinations and the opportunity to experience different culinary perspectives turn the dinner itself into a moment of celebration. And it all unfolds in the company of people united by a curiosity for new experiences and a shared appreciation of good food.
Seeing the City Together
At PURO, art becomes an invitation to discover the city together through Art Walks. This series of guided walks, led by curators, takes participants to local galleries, artists’ studios and venues dedicated to contemporary art. Each edition explores a different theme, meaning the route, the artists and the visited places all change along the way. Participation is free of charge.
PURO Art Walks take place primarily in Warsaw, but the series also extends to other Polish cities, including Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków and Gdańsk. The programme is grounded in the local art scene of each location, with routes leading through galleries, studios and spaces dedicated to contemporary art. In Gdańsk, participants have visited the former shipyard grounds, NOMUS and Grid Arthub, while in Kraków, stops have included Bunkier Sztuki, Szara Kamienica and Katarzyna Wyszkowska’s art studio.
It’s an unique way of getting to know a city through its galleries, studios and the people who shape its cultural life. Art Walks also show that a shared interest can be a compelling reason to venture beyond your everyday routine and discover something you might never have come across on your own.
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