Sofar, So Good

Will she find love at a singles Jazz Night? Find out on this week's edition of The Great Offline Dating Experiment.

Big news: I broke my five-month streak of not asking people out this weekend!! This post isn’t about that story because I’m keeping this one a bit more quiet — only the inner sanctum knows who it is — but it felt good to ask someone out again! And to have them say ‘yes’!! I think I’ll do it again soon, I can feel the momentum pushing me.

Hypothesis

A music gig is a great place to meet someone.

Background

People have begun to send me ideas for experiments for Seriasly, which I love (please send more!). Recently, my friend, Molly, who is a big fan of Sofar Sounds, told me that they host singles nights in London called Heartbeat. I went onto the Sofar website and signed up for the next available singles event, which happened to be a jazz night (one of my favorite genres) and also happened to be right around the corner from my house.

The last time I had been to a Sofar Sounds concert was ten years ago when I was living in Los Angeles. If you aren’t familiar with the company, they host small pop-up concerts with up and coming artists. Usually the way it goes is you sign up knowing the date, the genre of music, and the general neighborhood. Then, a day or two before the event they send you the specific address and artists. The music and venues are always really interesting, and the events themselves attract great people.

The producer of Heartbeat, Nasya Munga, was at the jazz night, so I briefly interviewed her about the program. Back when she joined the team nine months ago, Heartbeat was just an idea that the London arm of Sofar was throwing around. I asked Nasya how the idea for Heartbeat came about: “Sofar has always stood for community building, and they happened to be creating relationships as a result. People have gotten married and had babies after meeting at a Sofar event. So, they figured since they were already accidentally in the dating space, they should try to do it properly.”

Cut to nearly one year later, Nasya has turned the pilot program into a successful series of events and has already begun to bring people together. The best part for her? “Seeing people actually leaning into the experience! I’m single, I know how hard it is. But I like putting something together that brings people together in London, which is quite a hard city to date in.”

While the New York and Los Angeles branches of Sofar Sounds occasionally have singles events, no other city has a dedicated event vertical like London does. Hopefully Nasya’s success with Heartbeat in London will inspire a more global program.