Groped on the dancefloor? No thanks, we’re Gen Z

2 months ago 21

It’s 2am on a Sunday, but the flashing lights, loud music and packed bar hide that. The floor is sticky, greasy even, and the smell is like a post-match footy locker room. A phantom hand creeps up your back. You push it away and shout into your friend’s ear: “I’m getting some water.”

“What?” she mouths back. “I can’t hear you.”

The doof-doof music is deafening.

Only 42 per cent of Gen Zs want to frequent a bar or pub.

Pushing through the dancers and drinkers, the need for fresh air is overwhelming. Why on earth am I here?

And while we make the mistake of giving it a second and third chance, Sydney’s nightlife, to most of my friends, is dead: a ghost that beckons with an offer of a good time, and ends sober, in the back of an Uber, asking that same question, over and over. Why on earth are we here?

The Visa Vibe Economy Report backs us up. More than 65 per cent of Gen Zs prefer a night out at dinner, followed by the movies, or a visit to night markets. Only 42 per cent want to frequent a bar or pub, and 22 per cent want to go dancing.

It’s easy to label this a significant and generational culture shift, but perhaps more immediate forces are at play. The cost of a night out tops the list. And the lack of safety we feel in our city comes in a close second.

Let’s just look at the economy of a night out: pre-drinking (mandatory for students on a budget) a few cans of Hard Solo (-$13) over a mi goreng with friends (-$0.50), a six-kilometre bus trip into Oxford Street (-$3.14). Entry into the club your mates have chosen (-$25), and three vodka lime and sodas over three hours (-$60).

Dehydrated, overstimulated and tired, you call it a night, but treat yourself to a kebab (-$19) and an Uber Pool home (-$28). A night out, and you are $150 lighter. And what have you got to show? A kebab wrapper and a pair of sticky heels.

That’s the economics. But what about safety? Ask any 20-year-old woman, whose friends are a similar age, and the stories are endless.

The groper. The hand that wanders where it is not allowed. The withering look of an old man whose drink you politely decline. Your dwindling phone battery as the Uber idles in traffic three kilometres away.

According to the NSW government, 42 per cent of women felt unsafe at night most of the time or all of the time. Women are twice as likely to feel unsafe in public spaces after dark compared with men.

Whether it’s that fear, which appears to strike young women and their mothers with equal force, or the black hole in your bank accounts, many young adults are now catching Ubers in the opposite direction to our city’s nightclubs.

Tuesday nights, with nine of my girlfriends, are at the local pub. Not a beer in sight and trivia is our weapon of choice. And the room is full of others just like us.

The economics are gold. Each week’s winnings fund the next week’s cornucopia of wedges and lemon, lime and bitters.

Boring? You might be surprised. Try it.

Marrickville Jazz is also a fan favourite among my university colleagues – male and female. It’s just a shed, in Marrickville, which hosts weekly live jazz. Entry is $30 and it’s BYO.

Posh on a budget.

Just months ago, Sydney pubs gained major foot traffic from hosting episode watch-parties for social media viral TV show The Summer I Turned Pretty. It wasn’t the offer of drinks that drew fans in, but the chance to connect over a shared pop-culture passion.

Or on the other end of the day, I suggest watching the hoards of young people “sunrise swimming” at Clovelly Beach. It’s a great way to start your day, get a pretty picture of the water for your Insta story and catch up over a coffee and croissant with your friends.

Trivia. Jazz. Book chats and running clubs. BYO sunset picnics.

Gen Zs think and behave differently to those who preceded us, even by a few years. And sure, our nights might finish earlier, but there is neither a headache nor a kebab wrapper the next day as reminders of an otherwise forgettable night.

Siena Fagan is a Sydney writer.

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