Don't relax with your coffee, dance with it

A coffee rave is a way to build a following and a community for both the café and the DJ or musician performing there

- Priyanko Sarkar

n a visit to London last year, Mithilesh Vazalwar, founder of Nagpur-based Corridor Seven Coffee Roasters, found himself at a uniquely interesting coffee space. A DJ was belting out energetic numbers while a crowd danced around him, exactly as anyone would at a rave party—except everyone was sober.

Vazalwar had thought about holding "jamming sessions" at his Nagpur café since 2018 but the London scene refined his idea. "Coffee raves are popular in Europe and US. I wanted to bring it to India. I connected with a local DJ and we sent out promotional material expecting 250 people to show up, max. Imagine our surprise when close to 500 came in during our first coffee rave in December last year," he says.

Ace DJ and TV host Nikhil Chinapa played a set at the café soon after, drawing a bigger crowd. The news spread like wildfire on social media and coffee raves have since proliferated across metro cities and Tier 2 and 3 cities such as Rajkot, Udaipur, Guwahati, Lucknow and Dehradun.

Bengaluru-based Harihar Thakral, better known as DJ Stich, says a coffee rave allows students who can't legally drink to enjoy a dance party and puts parents at ease since they know the gig will be done by 10pm. "Coffee raves have been happening in New York and Amsterdam for a while. In Germany, in fact, these raves are celebrated the same way we celebrate festivals like Holi," he says.

Dehradun-based Bharat Bhardwaj, known as Bakflash who has been DJing for the past 12 years, says he was surprised to see some of his boxing buddies at a recent coffee rave in the city.