The growth of one day choirs, where everyone sings with strangers
Pub Choir, a global movement founded by Astrid Jorgensen, allows strangers to gather for one-day singing events without auditions or long-term commitments. The initiative aims to foster community and reduce stress through collective music-making.
Why it matters
The growth of pop-up choirs reflects a broader cultural trend of people seeking accessible, low-pressure social connection and mental health relief in urban environments.
More than 500 people crammed into a sold out, standing-room-only concert hall in Hong Kong on a recent Monday night. At show time, the lights dimmed, and the crowd cheered — but a band didn’t appear on stage. Instead, Astrid Jorgensen, a former high school music teacher and the founder of Pub Choir, spent 90 minutes teaching the crowd to sing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.” At the end of the evening, the crowd belted out the song. “People really want to not just receive music but to make music,” Jorgensen told CNN before the show. “Those two things feel very different.” Jorgensen has been running crowd-led concerts since 2017, when she held the first event in an Australian pub with just 70 people in attendance.
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