From a Glasgow cafe basement to Seattle: How one Scottish man is hosting alcohol-free events for strangers

Now, less than two years after hosting the first Fellow Humans event, the 26-year-old has helped hundreds of strangers around the world find friends through alcohol-free events.

“It was December 2023 when I was sitting on a bench in Morocco and I thought to myself ‘wouldn’t it be cool if I could meet new cool people in Glasgow my age?’,” Mr Keir, from Neilston, explains, speaking from his London home where he moved four months ago in the hopes of expanding Fellow Humans.

“Also it was important to me that no alcohol was involved as I think, when it is, it’s quite difficult to connect with people.”

When Mr Keir saw there was a gap, with community groups in Glasgow either involving alcohol or being solely for a specific gender, he posted on the social media platform TikTok. The first Fellow Humans event was then born.

Twenty strangers from Glasgow gathered in a cafe basement in January last year. Soon enough, Mr Keir’s idea went viral and he started hosting events in Edinburgh.

He only graduated from a bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of Strathclyde in the summer of 2024, but immediately set his eyes on expanding Fellow Humans worldwide.

There are now around 16 events a month scattered across cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, London, Leicester, Seattle, San Diego, Prague, Freiburg and Paris.

The events, which include competitions and ice-breakers to help people make friends, range from trifle parties, jewellery making, yoga, pickleball, candle painting, sauna and cold plunge, to festive events like gingerbread decorating and snow globe making.

People predominantly find out about Fellow Humans from social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Reddit, as well as word of mouth. Mr Keir has one full-time employee and another who works part time, alongside 30 to 40 hosts scattered across the world who oversee the events once or twice a month.

Why no alcohol?

There has been a noticeable increase in younger people not drinking alcohol, especially in recent years. Only last week, businesswoman Kate Kenyon opened Scotland’s first and only alcohol-free bar in Aberdeen.

In 2022, 26 per cent of the UK’S 16 to 24-year-olds reported not drinking alcohol in the previous 12 months, according to charity Alcohol Change UK. This is compared to 19 per cent in 2011.

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So, why has Mr Keir decided to make his events alcohol-free?

“It comes from a personal belief,” he said. “I don’t drink alcohol, never have and I never will.

“I think in Glasgow you see so much alcohol around you. Even recently, when I was at Freshers Week handing out leaflets, I saw so many stalls where events with alcohol were the only option.

“Myself, I see the effects that alcohol has on people and the impact it has on relationships. The data shows it’s really bad for your health - I just didn’t want that to be at events.

“What happens is that a lot of people suffer from social atrophy because the only time they socialise with new people is when they’re under the influence of alcohol, they don’t know how to speak to people.

“If you think about it, pubs, bars and gigs all have lots of alcohol at them. These events with Fellow Humans, people do get anxious and they could argue that they’d be less anxious with alcohol. But it’s the best thing for them to get out their comfort zones and speak to people.

“There’ll never be any alcohol. I think there’s a time and place for it if people want to do it.”

Further Alcohol Change UK figures show there has been an increasing proportion of the adult population participating in the Dry January challenge. Those who take part aim to abstain from alcohol to reset habits and boost their wellbeing.

Between 2019 and 2024, the number of people planning an alcohol-free January more than doubled from 4.2 million to 8.5 million.

“I think my generation is becoming more health conscious and we’re seeing a surge of people drinking less,” Mr Keir said. “It also works because lots of people coming to the events don’t want to drink, so they won’t feel pressured to either.”

Fellow Humans goes global

When Mr Keir started up events in Edinburgh during June last year, they quickly started to sell out. Only a month later, he decided since he had friends in London, he wanted to try starting events in the UK capital, which is when FujiFilm reached out asking to work with Fellow Humans.

In the months to come, Fellow Humans also started to work with brands like Oatly, The Ordinary, Gail’s, Foundry and Legal & General. Away from the big brands, Mr Keir has worked with small cafe owners ever since the start of Fellow Humans - and even before during his days owning a hot chocolate business.

“We had those three cities until the start of this year,” he said. “Then we started Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol. In the past few months we’ve moved to Leicester, Paris, Seattle, San Diego, Freiburg and Prague.

“Edinburgh and London are quite international cities, so I had people coming to the events and then, for whatever reason, they moved back to wherever they were living.

“For example, we had an event in London and I had a friend there from Seattle. She helped out at a few events then moved back. She realised there was nothing like it there, so she wanted to start it in the States and we started a conversation.”

The story is similar when it comes to the background of why Fellow Humans has expanded to so many different cities outside of Glasgow. And it is not just group events Fellow Humans host. In recent times, the body has also introduced personality tests where a Fellow Humans employee will match a person with three to four strangers to meet over a coffee.

“It’s been kind of a crazy journey, but the whole point of Fellow Humans is that you have a great unique one-off evening, but you can also meet really cool people in your city,” Mr Keir said.