Buzzed before Noon
Inside the coffee rave craze sweeping London’s EDM scene
Most attendees I met at the event had found the rave through what I can assume was an aggressive Instagram marketing campaign. Beats and caffeine was sold as an exclusive first in line sign-up to a text message alerted ticket drop. The tickets themselves were dear standing at £17 per person. Free coffee or matcha from a bog-standard menu was included in the ticketing price (that’s a reduction of almost £5 for the basic oat iced matcha latte) and then a remaining £12 ticket price for four hours of emerging DJ sets and social ‘vibes.’ Compared to a night out this is a saving – it’s just harder to reconcile through a sober daytime lens. A trick was missed in providing a more diverse and experimental menu of caffeine-based drinks since the coffee was OK but ultimately nothing special.
More exciting drinks would have served to draw out the London-based influencers from their hiding spots for photogenic snaps of vibrantly layered beverages. The attendance age was around late twenties to early thirties, a classier alternative to dimmed night raves where one does not know whether they are going to be surrounded by discombobulated teenagers who have just discovered drugs and alcohol, or the token middle-aged divorcee preying on heavily intoxicated grad students.
I spoke briefly to Jai, organiser of the event, who had been wandering round with one of those tiny content creator cameras on a stick. There was also plenty of content being made via a videographer and several small-camera wielding crew.
The organiser oscillated between the two floors of the venue, occasionally disappearing: much to the dismay of his door ticketing sidekick who’d been left to broil in direct sunlight. Jai told me how he’d worked in marketing for various nightlife venues a year ago before deciding to trial beats and caffeine with views of expansion into festivals and venues in Soho and Clapham.
The music itself was not disappointing, I’m not as well versed in the EDM scene as London’s frequent ravers, but I have worked several stints across varying nightlife venues since moving to the city. One of which was a techno and house venue which would pump out the same non-progressing beats between the hours of 9pm and 4am to pulsating bodies in varying states of consciousness. It was encouraging to see that all the DJs at beats and caffeine were young women, with a closing finale by Chelsea Little playing a mixture of 2000s classics integrated into well timed beat drops laced with more contemporary releases. I had arrived an hour after the start time of 11am, playing into the morning running culture of my new residence and simulating what I assumed many of the daytime rave wellness gurus would be doing pre-event. There was still a slow-moving queue out the entrance while Peggy Gao remixes drifted through the open door, but very little dancing (or beat shuffling) taking place inside. Everyone was grouped in pairs, or if they’d attended solo, were wandering around in solitude clutching iced coffees.
There was an obvious reserve in the venue, usually the drugs and alcohol remove all inhibitions facilitating movement even in the shyest of partygoers – or at least that is how clubbing culture in one’s twenties seems to unfold. However, as the time drew on and the music swung towards an acceptably misogynistic but dance worthy set of Pitbull and Sean Paul, the crowd migrated upstairs to dance for a brief hour in the blazing heat.
The caffeine was hitting and on my second cup of the day I was feeling a need to dispel caffeinated jitters through side stepping to the DJ’s persistent beat. I’m not sure if this felt like a wellness culture event or more an ordeal designed for self-conscious introverts to work on their public skills of being perceived. I felt very perceived – here I was in the sober gaze of daylight, sweat beads on my upper lip, and dancing with an uncomfortable awareness of my own limbs.
What no one is mentioning is how tiring a rave is going to be during the daytime when there is a lack of substances to mask the pain in one’s bad knees. There is also the inevitable coffee crash which was timed perfectly for the party’s end and there was the inescapable fact I was lucky to have arrived post caffeinated latrinal apocalypse. I left the party, mid-afternoon London heatwave temperatures at their peak and cursed the remaining hours of the afternoon I knew would need to be filled. Overall, the event stood as a tester for beats and caffeine to gain feedback on future events planning (emailed later in the evening via survey), which for a first event was not too shabby. There are pros to the daytime coffee rave – nightshift workers and health-conscious young professionals being the main attendees I had interacted with during the event. Additionally, the lack of intoxication and daylight timing provided what was definitely a safer and more enjoyable atmosphere to an event I attended as a solo woman – I would not be raving alone at night in a dingey club. Beats and caffeine are very active on their Instagram page @beatsandcaffeine and planning an upcoming ticket drop to their next London event which is worth checking out with some more extroverted acquaintances.
Keep an eye on the next events here –
