Inside the Fire and Lightbox nightclub in Vauxhall, South London, a bass-heavy observe thunders from the audio system. Strobe lights pulsate above the heads of a sweaty, dancing crowd, bedecked in glitter and eccentric outfits. It seems to be like another membership evening — but it surely’s the center of the afternoon, and everybody right here is stone-cold sober.
Founded in 2022, the House of Happiness markets itself as “London’s ultimate sober clubbing extravaganza.” It’s certainly one of a rising variety of occasions trying to present a “nightlife-style” area for individuals who don’t wish to drink however nonetheless wish to celebration.
In Singapore, alcohol-free matcha raves have boomed in recognition, whereas in US cities, venues are embracing “soft clubbing,” with on-line occasion platform Eventbrite reporting a 92% improve in sober-curious gatherings in 2024. In Europe, sober digital music occasions have taken place in Paris and Berlin, and in the UK, long-running superclub Ministry of Sound introduced its inaugural sober rave day celebration collection earlier this yr.
House of Happiness co-founder Neil Hudson-Basing, 43, describes their core demographic as late-20s to mid-40s, however says that people as outdated as 80 have attended their occasions.
“Partying and dancing and music is for everyone,” he says. “We wanted something really glittery and bold and a bit wild … that had all the ingredients of a clubbing event, but just no drugs or alcohol,” he provides.
Hudson-Basing determined to surrender medicine and alcohol six years in the past, motivated partly by “problematic drinking and drug-taking,” he says. But he didn’t wish to surrender partying.
With two buddies, who are additionally now sober, he launched the House of Happiness in response to what he perceived as a scarcity of “proper clubbing experience(s)” for sober people in the UK, the place alcohol and substance consumption — and overconsumption — are usually embedded in nightlife tradition.
He factors to Morning Gloryville, additionally based mostly in London, which organizes month-to-month sober dance events, as certainly one of the pioneers of the sober rave motion. But he describes their occasions as “very mindfulness or wellbeing focused” and explains he needed to supply sober people one thing purely “focused on the spirit of having a good time.”
Morning Gloryville’s chief working officer, Roxy Deniz Ozalp acknowledges that wellness is a key a part of their ethos. In addition to a “pumping dancefloor (and) DJ line-up,” their pre-work and daytime events supply yoga, meditation and breathwork classes.
“We’re just trying to cultivate more positivity in the world,” she says. “We give people the space and the compassion to just be kind to themselves … to dance in the silliest, most childlike, liberating and free way on the dancefloor,” she says.
Dancing, significantly in social settings, is assumed to have a positive impact on psychological well being and wellbeing, and it has additionally been proven to encourage social bonding. The UK’s Night Time Industries Association reported that 80% of attendees at digital music occasions felt that they had skilled emotional and psychological well being advantages.
But Deniz Ozalp says that the drug and alcohol-use commonplace in these settings can have a harmful affect on many people’s psychological and bodily well being. She says that the launch of Morning Gloryville was partly motivated by a need to make digital music venues safer areas, given the prevalence of substance and alcohol-related deaths in the dance music neighborhood.
Since launching in London in 2013, Morning Gloryville has expanded to 25 cities worldwide, together with Berlin and Sydney, holding sober raves in iconic venues like the Shard skyscraper in London, and taking part in host to bop music legends like Fatboy Slim and Basement Jaxx.
Meanwhile, in New York in 2013, Daybreaker founder Radha Agrawal was consuming post-club falafels with a good friend and musing on the concept of throwing sober dance events at dawn.
“I had been an investor in a nightclub in New York, and I’d go there every weekend, and I would look around the room and everyone was just zombies,” she says. “I was just realizing that going to get falafels at three o’clock in the morning, with make-up and mascara running down my face, (and being) exhausted for two days after that, was something I no longer wanted to do,” she provides.
Agrawal says she was stunned to seek out that so many felt the identical approach. Their first sober dawn dance celebration, in New York City in December 2013, attracted 180 people. She says Daybreaker occasions now draw as much as 2,000 people and by the finish of 2025, they’ll have thrown over 1,000 sober events throughout the world — from Tokyo and Buenos Aires to San Francisco and Amsterdam.
She explains that fostering connection is an integral part of Daybreaker’s mission, citing the Surgeon General’s 2023 declaration of a loneliness epidemic in the US. Since 1990, the share of American adults who report having no shut buddies has quadrupled to 12%, whereas the share of these with 10 or extra shut buddies has fallen practically threefold.
“If you’re drinking alcohol, you’re not really fully yourself,” says Agrawal, explaining that she feels this makes it troublesome to type genuine relationships. “I think people are realizing that when you drink, you’re lonelier,” she provides.
While there is no such thing as a substantial proof to recommend falling drug use, round the world alcohol consumption is declining, significantly amongst younger people in high income countries. In the US, solely 18-20% of these of authorized ingesting age underneath 28 say they frequently drink beer, wine, or spirits; whereas in the UK, 39% of 18-24-year-olds report not ingesting in any respect.
But regardless of this downward development, some at the House of Happiness occasion, in London, say that going out clubbing as somebody who doesn’t drink might be troublesome.
“Sometimes it takes a while, if I go to a place where people are drinking… to feel relaxed. I don’t let it stop me, but I don’t do it as much,” says Amy Bradshaw, 41, including that she “feel(s) a lot more comfortable” in devoted, sober celebration areas.
Ali, 32, who requested for her final identify not for use, is a DJ and says that sobriety was “isolating at first” as a result of she discovered that “going into those big party crowds was really overwhelming” without alcohol, however she missed music and dancing.
She thinks sober events present a supportive atmosphere for individuals who have determined to surrender ingesting. “It’s so uplifting here,” she says, as she takes a break from the dance ground and helps herself to the free sweets supplied to keep up ravers’ vitality in lieu of alcohol.
“When you come (to) places like this, it’s about connection, making friends,” she provides, explaining that she feels commonplace membership nights are “not fun when you take yourself away from the drink.”
Not everybody at the House of Happiness day rave has given up alcohol fully. “I’m not sober in general; I like a drink,” says Carli Townsend, 40.
“This is a safe environment for people just to go and have fun,” says Townsend, who thinks that clubbing when alcohol is current might be harmful.
“You get people fueled up, there might be a fight … at the end of the night,” she explains. “At the end, here, you leave feeling happy, genuinely,” she provides.
While many membership fanatics would possibly shudder at the prospect of getting on the dance ground sober, Deniz Ozalp says “people feel quite high” at Morning Gloryville occasions, “because of the heightened energy and this ecstatic, euphoric feeling that people get just through … dance” and music.
Hudson-Basing says he finds that people are truly extra relaxed at his sober House of Happiness events than at common clubbing occasions. “People just go for it much sooner in the day, because they’re not waiting for something to kick in,” he says. “It’s wild.”
While he doesn’t suppose sober raves will ever substitute drink and drug tradition in nightlife venues, Hudson-Basing hopes they current more healthy options to people that are nonetheless enjoyable. “Sober really doesn’t have to mean boring,” he says.