Events connect people without booze

By KELLI KENNEDY

Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

It’s not really about the meal at the monthly Conscious Family Dinner, although there is a plenty of vegan Indian food. You can spend time in a cuddling sanctuary, sit down with a tarot reader, chat career goals with a life coach or sit in on an acro-yoga sex psychotherapy presentation. And there’s almost always some form of dancing.

But what’s inconspicuously missing is alcohol.

Creator Ben Rolnik says the dinners are about creating a new form of play that facilitates meaningful connections, not the vapid chitchat that often proliferates at cocktail parties or bars.

The reception to the dry dinners, which take place at various spots in Los Angeles but are expanding soon nationwide, has been impressive, with each of the 200-person event selling out. Tickets cost $35.

“It’s like a journey more than a dinner,” said Rolnik, a 26-year-old yogi and former talent manager.

Similar parties are popping up across the country, notably in New York, Miami and Chicago, tapping into an itch from millennials to find meaningful connections and purpose even in their night life.

When Justin Henderson, who created the event company Bender, hosted his first few events in Chicago a few years ago, he served alcohol, but noticed very few people were imbibing. As time went on, he decided to stop offering it all together.

Instead, Bender’s events range from 40 to 300 people and include everything from a rooftop yoga pool party to midnight silent disco yoga on the pool deck.

“I’m just one part of a bigger movement. It’s not so much about whether alcohol is there or not ... people are just looking for ways to connect around things that they value and are passionate about,” said Henderson.

Courtney Nichols, 28, has attended several Bender events in LA, and says it combines the fun of a late-night party in a more socially conscious manner. “It’s never been an issue of not having alcohol. It probably is to the benefit of the event,” said Nichols, who was struck by the sense of camaraderie. “You get to meet people in a clearer head space. You leave the party, and you feel refreshed.”

While the events have a different feel around the country, they all involve movement, often yoga or dance, to help people loosen up and connect with their bodies and each other in a shared experience.