Over 5,300 feet of tables and an immeasurable amount of good conversation brought Denverites to the Auraria Campus on Saturday morning.

The Mile Long Table, organized by the nonprofit Longer Tables, invited people to break and enjoy getting to know one another, with the only rule being that there was no work talk allowed.

As volunteers carried out family-style bowls and platters of grilled chicken, mixed green salad, corn and beans and small loaves of olive bread, attendees engaged in conversation with the former strangers sitting nearby. Topics ranged from favorite movies, to shared childhood experiences to ongoing passion projects.

“I think it’s lovely,” said Molly Smolen, sitting at the table in the shade by the 10th Street Plaza. “Come with a friend and sit with a stranger, and you’ll meet people that you would have no opportunity to meet otherwise.”

For Tim Jones, the founder and executive director of Longer Tables, the event was nine years in the making.

“I don’t think there’s a word to describe the emotions I’m feeling,” Jones said as attendees began taking their seats at the table. “I look at kids here and I’m like ‘oh my gosh, what are they going to take away from this?'”

The motivation behind the event — and others put on my his organization — is to facilitate human interactions with people of all backgrounds and cultures, Jones said. In a world that is becoming increasingly more isolated, he noted the importance of bringing people together under a common goal of creating more relationships, especially with those outside one’s usual social sphere.

“You get humans at a table, you get them talking about their childhood, their memories, they feel seen, they feel understood,” Jones said. “Within an hour, there is this deep connection.”

The event had several sponsors, including Southwest Airlines and Shamrock Foods, the latter of which donated all the food for Saturday’s event, Jones said.

Additionally, hundreds of volunteers help set up both the tables and table settings over the course of nearly six hours Friday night and four more hours Saturday morning.

“I think having a space where there’s intentionality around connection, that’s magic,” said Mike Henry, reclining in the grass of Tivoli Quad as the event was wrapping up.

Will Hines, who was sitting alongside Henry, agreed with the sentiment.

“People don’t often have a true greenlight to have that conversation with someone, so being here where you’re sitting next to someone you don’t know with a nametag on, it helps,” Hines added.

A noted hater of round tables for their inability to truly encourage human connection, Jones highlighted the significance of the dinner table-style atmosphere that the event’s setup encouraged.

“The dinner table can be the most powerful place in the world,” Jones said. “It humanizes us. It fosters a deep, meaningful interaction where you can share stories with one another.”