Disco dreams and coffee beans: How coffee shop raves are changing the way Dubai parties

An evolution is at Dubai’s doorstep, and here’s why you need a sip of this brand new brew…

It throws me off, just the slightest, to discover that the man and the myth behind Fred’s Coffee Party is quite literally, just one man. A post-graduate college student, for that matter, the grinning, twinkling face of a boy. Fred is in fact, not Fred at all – he is Shivam Grover and he organises coffee shop raves for fun.

“I didn’t want to be a corporate slave,” he says, with a slight laugh and a shake of his head.

Fred’s Coffee Party is exactly what it sounds like – a three-word description of a new modus operandi of club culture that is bubbling and brewing in the niches of Dubai. Our little desert-locked haven is synonymous with packed, pulsating dance floors, alcohol swishing about in decanters that seem to only be getting bigger and a rinse-and-repeat weekend routine of play hard, hang over painfully harder.

In the midst of this disco-ball-blindness is emerging a trend of coffee shop raves, essentially sober parties where the cool currency of the night is a cup of artisanal joe. Shannon Soans, a dear friend, promoter-night connoisseur and one half of the force behind Off The Record, one of Dubai’s hottest weekend parties he cofounded with Beeking Gurung, is raising a glass (of Spanish latte, probably) to that. This is No Filter, Off The Record’s caffeinated cousin.

“Beeking and I were already partners for Off The Record,” explains Shannon of the origins of No Filter. “We got bored, and we do the conventional Saturday nights at different clubs in Dubai, but we also wanted to tap into the market of those who don’t drink but enjoy that kind of music. Beeking introduced me to Mohamed – I think Mohamed come up with the name No Filter – but yeah, he had the coffee background and we thought this would be a perfect fit.”

Behind the scenes, you’re looking at a three-man band, with Shannon, Beeking and provider of the golden bean juice, Mohamed Ali Al Madfai of Emirati Coffee, a brewery and coffee shop that takes it’s beans quite seriously, from the birth of the plant to the bitter steam in your face. Together, they are bringing about a change in the way the city parties. Coffee shop raves are not novel – they exist as a proponent of all things cool, cultural and non-alcoholic in many countries, especially in Europe, but in this part of the world, this concept is fresh and inviting, and the people have been won over.

The formula is simple – a visually aesthetic location, a high-octane DJ with a playlist of the most popular house music mix right now under his belt and of course, coffee, and BOOM. You’ve created a space for a new type of party person, the young, fun, mostly Generation Z, health conscious, perpetually sober one, who just wants to go dancing without having to fight off party zombies and the baggage that comes with drinking.

 “When I came to Dubai, I saw so many people into wellness, which I never saw back in India, so people going to the gyms, preferring their health over anything, and the number of people who are sober here is way higher than anywhere in the world,” remarks Shivam. “People are actually focusing a lot on their health since COVID.”

“Currently at this moment, what I like is that there’s just so much positivity around,” explains Shannon, adding that people are loving the literal and metaphorical weightlessness of the experience. “We recently had a Costa Coffee collaboration. People had their dogs, and the dog was chilling, and people got their kids as well. It’s a cool way to enjoy this type of music.”

Shivam works on his own, partnering with cool cafes (and the Dubai Airport, not that long ago), a sign of the times in Dubai, and DJs to set up raves. Events are small, an air of exclusivity with special invitations sent in private DMs to followers old and new. Shannon, Beeking and Mohamed deck out their venues with rented sound-systems, bottling their cold brews and lattes into beer glass. You’re bound to see a pair of jorts, or cowboy boots, removed hilariously far from the Wild West.

“If you see some of the videos from the Costa event, the staff together were just carrying the event along with the DJ,” recalls Shannon, explaining to me the supercharged atmosphere at these parties. “At one point, Soulja Boy played and there were like maybe 10 or 15 people behind that were just doing the Soulja and the whole coffee shop was going left. It was in waves and we were like wow, I still can’t believe this happens. This doesn’t even happen at Off The Record but it’s happening at coffee parties.”

“Even I thought that people would just be connecting and talking,” adds Shivam. “You know, there would be less energy because mostly there is the alcohol that gets people dancing, right? But even after the first event, people went mad. The energy was actually higher than what you see in the club – people are dancing, jumping, there’s a section of people who are talking, networking.”

All the makings of a sky-rocketing social and cultural tide, and that is exactly what’s happening right now as the omnipresence of social media fans the flame of popularity and the prospect of building new connections. This may not have been possible perhaps 10 years ago, without this rise in sobriety, without our digital universe, and the anatomy of trends and trendiness.

But, here we are, and we like this place.

Both Fred’s and No Filter have big plans for innovation to combat the potential low of this high, with new locations, new formats, new genres of music and new drinks on the board – perhaps not expansion, because that takes away from the curious joy of the insider mindset. Right now, they’re downing espresso shots, reveling in the club-bound-C02-esque steam of coffee makers, and being really, really cool.

@nofilter.dxb, @fredscoffeeparty

Images: Supplied