The Founders of Above30Club On Reinventing Partying for Your 30s
Party collective Above30Club hopes to reconfigure partying to better suit changing life rhythms in your 30s.
If you feel nostalgic about partying the night away while chanting “eh-wah eh-wah eh-wah”, stop right here. When was the last time you went to a club, let your hair loose and could sing the lyrics of every song being played?
At Above30Club, the party starts at 3pm and the lights come on by 8pm — just in time to go home for dinner and be in bed before 10pm. It is a few hours to dance, drink and temporarily forget about adult responsibilities. Even the giveaways are unusual — they handed out Salonpas at one of their parties.
“We’re probably the only place you will hear people still chanting ‘eh-wah eh-wah eh-wah’,” says Vira Suria, one of the three founders of Culture, the party collective behind the Above30Club. If “eh-wah eh-wah” means something to you, you’re probably exactly who they have in mind.
The name is fairly self-explanatory. Above30Club is a community-focused party concept for people in their 30s who still want to party like it’s the 2000s, just with a few concessions for their less-than-prime bodies. Its Instagram bio reads: “Daytime party for the ones with back pain & bills.” If that resonates, there really isn’t much more to explain.
“It’s for a community that [has stopped partying] — whether that’s because of new commitments, responsibilities, or simply because their priorities have changed,” says Suria. A familiar figure in the club scene, he wanted to create a place that tapped into that mix of nostalgia and reality, turning it into a positive reminder that there are people who feel the same way, and that you can still have fun without having to pretend you’re at a different stage of life.
“I am 32, and my friends don’t really want to party anymore. So why not just create a place where it’s actually meant for them?” he says.
And perhaps that is the appeal. Growing older doesn’t necessarily mean growing out of the things that you once enjoyed. Sometimes, you just need someone to move the party forward by a few hours.
Enter Above30Club: a party built around the anthems of the ’90s and ’00s — think Titanium or a Westlife hit — without the late nights, the hangover or the fatigue. There is no need for skinny Nudie Jeans rolled up at the hem, paired with ankle socks and leather dress shoes. Comfortable jeans are welcome, sneakers are the norm, and slippers are probably the only hard no.
Suria, alongside fellow DJs SoundsofFai, Lucas Kyle and Jeanette Ong, are the people behind the Above30Club. All of them are between 29 to 37. “We’re just a group of friends doing a hobby that became bigger,” says Suria.
It began in December 2025 with their first party at Tuff Club, which sold out with 300 people in attendance. Since then, they have held parties almost every month, expanding beyond Singapore into Malaysia and Indonesia. Their events now regularly draw hundreds of people, with a cap of 500 turning up at Rasa Space due to venue capacity.
Unlike Gen Z’s increasingly popular sober parties, where Jägerbombs and vodka orange are swapped for coffee and matcha, Above30Club does not ask its guests to give up the booze. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are both available, allowing everyone to participate on their own terms.
Still, the idea of drinking and partying at 2pm can take some getting used to. There is something slightly absurd about making your way to a club in broad daylight. And thanks to Singapore’s humidity, you’ll probably be sweating before the music and dancing even start.
But once you step inside, things start to change. The lights are low, the room feels familiar, and the opening notes of Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina take over. Suddenly, you’re 21 again, even if it is only 4pm. That slightly ridiculous contradiction is perhaps what makes Above30Club work. It does not try to recreate youth; it recreates the feeling of it, but within the realities of adulthood.
For Suria, the music is important, but it is not what ultimately keeps people coming back. “It’s the community effect,” he says. “People want to find a place where they belong.” Decent music, a good venue and a well-produced experience matter, but “what sells the event itself is the people”.
It is something you can see once you are in the room. Everyone arrives with their own version of adulthood, but for a few hours, those differences become almost irrelevant. They are all there for the same reason: to have fun with people who understand the particular exhaustion of being in their 30s. And perhaps, this is where nostalgia becomes more than the reason to show up. It is about finding a version of yourself that still exists underneath all the responsibilities that came later in life.
“Our vision is to [create] a place where everyone can feel a sense of community,” says Suria. “People want to feel like there is a place where they can have fun and just get to know each other.”
That sense of emotional recognition runs through everything Above30Club does. Even its social media refuses to take itself too seriously. “We’re quite lame,” he says, laughing. “We’re not afraid to be ourselves. We try to do quirky things in our videos.” For sure, they’re not trying to be “gen Z interns” trying to make social media content.
There is something refreshing about that admission. Above30Club is not selling an aspirational version of adulthood, nor is it trying to make being 30 look cooler than it is. In fact, it does almost the opposite. “We are selling the vulnerability of being our age,” says Suria.
In less than a year, Above30Club has grown to offer more than just a monthly nostalgic playlist meet-up. In July, their biggest daytime party took over a warehouse at Tanjong Pagar Distripark drawing around 1,200 people. The most recent edition asked guests to dress as if it was their first day at their first job — a fitting theme for a crowd whose present-day realities might include being a “people and culture lead” or a “chief something officer”, people who want to forget all that for a moment and remember a more innocent and carefree time.
The club has also begun experimenting with other ways to bring people together. Above30SocialClub is a more intimate weekend noon gathering built around games, drinks and conversation, giving people a chance to meet someone new without the volume and energy of a full-blown party.
It feels like a natural evolution. What started as a party for people who thought they had outgrown partying has become something broader: a space for people who simply want to have a good time — with old music, old friends, new people and, perhaps, a younger version of themselves.
Maybe that is what Above30Club has understood better than most: we never really outgrow wanting to have fun. We just need a party that accommodates our changing needs, and understands when it is time to turn on the lights and let us go home.
