It’s 2am on a Sunday, but the flashing lights, loud music and packed bar hide that. The floor is sticky, greasy even, and the smell is like a post-match footy locker room. A phantom hand creeps up your back. You push it away and shout into your friend’s ear: “I’m getting some water.”

“What?” she mouths back. “I can’t hear you.”

The doof-doof music is deafening.

Only 42 per cent of Gen Zs want to frequent a bar or pub.Credit: Paul Rovere

Pushing through the dancers and drinkers, the need for fresh air is overwhelming. Why on earth am I here?

And while we make the mistake of giving it a second and third chance, Sydney’s nightlife, to most of my friends, is dead: a ghost that beckons with an offer of a good time, and ends sober, in the back of an Uber, asking that same question, over and over. Why on earth are we here?

The Visa Vibe Economy Report backs us up. More than 65 per cent of Gen Zs prefer a night out at dinner, followed by the movies, or a visit to night markets. Only 42 per cent........

© The Sydney Morning Herald