You end up next to strangers who are feeling what you’re feeling, moving the way you’re moving, and whatever distance you arrived with just kind of dissolves. Being surrounded by bodies that are feeling what you’re feeling registers as contact, even without words. Researchers who study loneliness say people don’t need a grand event to come together — they need a premise. I’m not saying brands stumbled into solving the loneliness epidemic. People showed up to a 400,000-person music festival and chose to spend part of their day making things with strangers.