Coffee raves in Madrid: three daytime parties with IFE SOUND

This summer, three times, two Madrid cafes cleared some counter space, for Afrohouse music, coffee lovers and passersby to enjoy nice coffee for a few hours where the room did what a good room does. Coffee on the bar, DJs on the deck, Afro house music, and a crowd that came for both. This is what CafeRadar and IFE SOUND have been up to, and why we are not done.

What is a coffee rave?

A coffee rave, or daytime coffee party, is a version of a party that starts when the sun is up and ends in time for dinner. The music is loud enough to move to, the drinks are pulled through a portafilter, and nobody has to choose between a night out and a clear morning. A cafe clears some floor, DJ sets up, the music and the people, and for a few hours the room fills with people who came to meet each other. No alcohol required, so people drove home. The format has been spreading through coffee cities all year, and the reason is simple. It keeps the two best parts of going out, the music and the people, and swaps everything else for a flat white, pour over, and cold brews.

The rooms

It started at Misión Café on July 12, the day CafeRadar did a soft launched in Madrid in collaboration with Ife.Sound and Mision Cafe. coffee lovers, Afro house lovers, and a lot of people who turned out to be both. People networked, danced, ordered another round of iced lattes, and stayed for the fun.

Then it moved down the road. LAZO Café & Wine Bar hosted on August 1, and the second LAZO edition followed on September 5. Same idea, different room

The coffee

The bars stayed open and busy all afternoon with people enjoying themselves, networking while enjoying their cup of coffee. At Misión the baristas kept the espresso machine and the cold brew moving while the room filled; at LAZO the counter did double duty, coffee and wine orders and the Djs entertaining the crowds. Iced lattes outnumbered everything else. It was real summer in Madrid.

The music

IFE SOUND is an Afro house DJ and event team led by DJ Dnice and Materia Prima, and the sets are the spine of these afternoons with other talented DJs: Afro house first, with detours wherever the room wanted to go. At the September edition the dj lineup and the diversity of the music tells you most of what you need to know about the spirit of the Party.

Where it started

The first poster went up on the door of Misión Café for the soft launch day, July 12. where people can Scan to download caferadar app, check-in at Mision cafe and claim a badge, stay for the music. Three parties later the poster is the artifact, and the afternoons are the habit.

Visiting Madrid?

Time your trip right and you can be in the room. The next dates go up on this page and in the CafeRadar app first, so check back before you land. And if the dates do not line up, the cafes are the party's other half every day of the week: Misión Café and LAZO Café & Wine Bar are two of the best rooms in Madrid's specialty coffee scene, and the CafeRadar app maps the rest of it. A free morning in this city is never wasted.

The next one

We are doing it again in October, and again in November. The dates go up here first, and in the app. Madrid is where this started, not where it ends: coffee raves are turning up in coffee cities everywhere, and that is exactly the company we want to keep. If you run a cafe and this looks like an afternoon your room could hold, in Madrid or anywhere else in the world, write to hello@caferadar.app. We would genuinely like to hear from you.