Last week in Brooklyn, Phoebe Bridgers’ “boy genius” bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker surprised fans when they joined her onstage during her first-night show at Barclays Center.
But you won’t find any viral videos of fans scream-singing “Not Strong Enough” on social media. That’s because – like all of Bridgers’ shows this fall – no phones were permitted in the arena.
Here in Atlanta, local spots like Seventh House and Wylde Center are curating similar analog experiences to help people connect and recharge, sans screens.
Cultivating meaningful connections
Adair Park bar Seventh House launched its first phone-free event in September.
On the first Friday of every month, the bar and main dining room transform into phone-free zones. Guests leave their phones in a secure lockbox, then enjoy a screen-free night of cocktails, food, and experiential activities like board games.
Nicky Firmin-Chavez, Seventh House’s GM and Beverage Director, said phone-free Fridays are a natural fit for the cozy, Zodiac-themed cocktail den.
“We understand that we’re an intimate and quaint space, and that’s not just accidental, but it’s by design,” Firmin-Chavez said.
“We just removed the distraction element, which is the phone,” he continued.
For the first event, Firmin-Chavez and his team set up arts and crafts stations and brought in popular games like dominoes. An amateur photographer, Firmin-Chavez also snapped candids with a Fujifilm mini camera for patrons to take home as souvenirs.
For the next phone-free Friday on Friday, Oct. 3, the bar will have a tarot reader and is encouraging guests to bring their favorite vinyl records to spin.
Firmin-Chavez said these intimate, hands-on touches extended the amount of time guests spend in the restaurant, from an average of 90 minutes to 2.5 to 3 hours.
Many of the guests make reservations specifically for the analog night, but even those who weren’t aware the policy were enthusiastic about putting away their phones for an hour or two.
“I just love seeing people come together,” Firmin-Chavez said.
“There’s so much opportunity and friendship that could happen from just the exploration and unpredictability of interacting with strangers or reconnecting with friends on a night like this,” he said.
Offering analog activities
Like Seventh House, Wylde Center in Oakhurst recently started a monthly screen-free event. Dubbed “Airplane Mode,” the classes are modeled after the National Portrait Gallery’s popular Analog Nights.
“We felt like Oakhurst Garden was a perfect space to welcome people for a mid-week, relaxing evening where they could step away from their screens and endless to-do lists,” said Alexis Ryan, Wylde Center’s rentals, volunteer, and public programs manager.
Like many of her millennial peers, Ryan said she and her friends are swapping dining out for hands-on craft nights like the ones she organizes at Wylde Center.
“I think there has definitely been movement towards more analog activities, and I look at them as the perfect opportunities to recharge, almost like scheduled self- care,” Ryan said.
For the first Airplane Mode event, Wylde Center partnered with Scraplanta to offer a beaded plant workshop.
“We’ve learned that our community really likes these workshops and being able to take what they created home with them at the end of the evening, so we plan to lean into that with our upcoming Airplane Mode evenings,” Ryan said.
The next Airplane Mode is on Oct. 20 at Oakhurst Garden and will feature drop-in, instructor-led and self-serve activities centered around mending and reclaimed materials.
