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On a cold Monday afternoon in Hyde Park, London, a small group of people gather by the Huntress fountain chatting softly among themselves. Nothing about the group would seem unusual to passing dog walkers and runners – until they huddle together and one starts a countdown.
On three, a collective scream cuts through the park. The outburst lasts only a few seconds before giving way to laughter. They were only meant to do it once, but end up screaming again – louder, the second time.
This is London Scream Club, one of several gatherings across the UK where people meet to scream into the open air as a form of release. A TikTok video of a public group scream in Minneapolis, US, went viral, inspiring offshoots in Chicago and now cities including London and Birmingham. Participants follow a few simple rules: “Hydrate, respect your body’s limits and if you feel dizzy, pause,” explains 23-year-old Shania Barnes.
For many, it’s not just about the noise but connection, community and finding new ways to cope with stress.
“It’s important to connect with others,” says Barnes, a culinary management student who also runs a micro-bakery. “In a city like London, people are constantly stressed. It’s nice to be able to release your energy together. It’s not only a scream club, but also a social club.”
Barnes says she started the group to “release pent-up energy” from the “stresses of work, life and being a girl”.
“This time last year, I would’ve never done something like this,” she says. “Being lonely, struggling to make friends – I felt it all, once upon a time. I might still feel that way, but I wanted to make new friends.”
What began as a viral trend has quickly evolved into a new kind of “third space” that some in the group say they have been searching for: a setting that doesn’t revolve around alcohol or spending money. “We need more social clubs,” Barnes says. “There aren’t many places for young people to go to meet others without spending money or feeling pressured to drink. People really need that.”
For others, the scream club is an experiment in vulnerability. Ikhlas, 20, a politics student, says she came along after seeing the trend on TikTok. “I realised I’ve never screamed at a loud volume in my whole life, so I wanted to see how that would feel – is it tension-relieving?” she says. “A few years ago, I would’ve never imagined I’d come by myself to a park and scream with strangers.”
She found the experience unexpectedly freeing. “It helps with social anxiety,” she says. “It’s fun, but you also go home feeling refreshed because you’ve met and spoken to new people. That in itself is a kind of therapy.”
Maliha Hussain, 21, a master’s student, also discovered the club through social media. “I’ve been stressed a lot recently – my eye keeps twitching,” she laughs. “I can’t really scream at home, my parents would be confused. But here, everyone’s in the same boat. Nobody’s judging you.”
Hussain believes the trend reflects the difficulty many young people face in accessing mental health support. “It’s really hard to see a therapist in the UK. NHS waiting lists are long, and private therapy is expensive,” she says. “Coming here and having some sort of stress relief, even if you’re not talking about your problems, works for people.”
Shania’s mother, Raswella Warburton, 55, came along to support her daughter but also ended up joining the group scream. “People of an older age might think screaming is quite silly, or only for young or unwell people,” she says. “But I actually felt a kind of unburdening.”
For best friends Ottilie Nye and Sarah Craig, 25 and 26, the experience was as cathartic as it was fun. “I never scream,” Sarah says. “I was nervous at first because I didn’t know how people would react, but it was actually quite liberating. It felt fun to scream with strangers, everyone’s going through their own things, but we come together to let it all out.”
Ottilie, a drama workshop leader and sex educator, says scream clubs have resonated with young people for “so many reasons”: “The state of the world, all of the horrific things that are happening – sometimes it can feel hopeless and we’re conditioned to think we’re not allowed to feel that.”
