The cure for modern loneliness

Last week's sober party at Funan is proof that people can be drawn to connect when their environments are inclusive and free

- Teo Kai Xiang

On Aug 29, thousands of Gen Z Singaporeans descended on Funan after dark for what organisers called "the biggest sober party in Singapore".

Many of them packed into the mall's basement foodcourt, where DJs spun R&B and hip-hop music. Upstairs, partygoers were jumping to Afrobeats and Brazilian funk at two other party zones: Mexican chain restaurant Guzman y Gomez and sportswear store Pas Normal Studios.

"I've never had any experience going to clubs," said Ms Nur Diyanah, 21, who was there with her boyfriend, adding that the event exceeded her expectations.

Like many Gen Z gatherings, this was an event born almost entirely from social media hype.

One can trace its origins back to three Singaporean 21-year-olds going viral by posting about a house party in 2024.

This trio, the co-founders behind the coffee clubbing collective Beans&Beats, would spend the next year growing their events from small daytime parties in cafes into their Funan takeover.

Something that most revellers may not have realised, however, was that the party was just the evening finale to the For Real Fest, Singapore's newest attempt at engineering a cure for modern loneliness. Its inaugural edition took place in 2024.

After experiencing it, this reporter found that the answer was not technological innovation or a radically new approach, but something far simpler: making things free.

YOUTH TAKE ON LONELINESS EPIDEMIC

Arriving at Funan on Friday at 6pm, four hours before the Beans&Beats afterparty was due to begin, I was not sure what to expect.

The For Real Fest advertised itself as "Singapore's biggest playground for real connection", a vague descriptor that drew only a modest early evening crowd.

Attendees I met variously described it as a Gen Z friendship festival, a way to teach young people to ditch their screens for real-world connections, and an unofficial successor to the government-run Social Development Network (SDN).