CHOCOLATE CLUB · CONSCIOUS GATHERINGS SINCE 2004
Gatherings for wild hearts and free spirits.
Alcohol-free festivals, ecstatic dance gatherings and ceremonies where people from across Europe come to move, connect, explore and celebrate life.
3 Yearly Gatherings
OUR STORY
Where cacao first met the dance floor.
Chocolate Club was born in 2002, when Keung Man, Bastiaan Swager and Remy Draaijer organised the first cacao ceremonies in the Netherlands — alongside chefs and raw-food pioneers like Jeramaya van de Sterren, Gaja Beukers, Roell Kerkhout and raw chocolatier Shanour Moens. Back then, “superfoods” and dancing barefoot still raised eyebrows. We did it anyway.
In 2004 the first Chocolate Club clubnights followed — conscious clubbing without alcohol, years before there was a word for it. The Mirror Centre became our home, and our superfood store in the Jordaan (now the Healthclub Jordaan) became our kitchen. In 2012, Jens van den Akker took the helm.
Then the gatherings grew legs. Het Grote Fijne was born in 2018 as an exuberant Old & New celebration with DJ Kareem Raïhani — and a year later we hosted our first multi-day gatherings: Ecstatic Dance Festival Holland and Het Grote Fijne Festival. In 2024 we opened our own cacao & ritual shop.
Big festival or intimate club night — the intention never changed: 0% alcohol, 100% spirit. A celebration of life, full of dance, superfoods, saunas, hot tubs, ice baths, workshops and ceremonies.
01
Meet Jens
Jens van den Akker is the founder of Conscious Gatherings, owner of Chocolate Club and the creative force behind Ecstatic Dance Festival Holland and Het Grote Fijne Festival.
His journey brings together communication, hospitality, music and conscious culture. After studying Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam, Jens worked as a manager at the Mirror Centre and Club Lite, two places that played an important role in the early conscious club culture of Amsterdam. In 2012, he took the helm of Chocolate Club and continued building on its pioneering roots.
For Jens, a gathering is about much more than creating a programme. It is about creating the right conditions for people to move freely, connect, explore and recharge. He believes that going out does not have to drain you. It can bring you closer to yourself, to other people and to life.
That vision now lives in festivals filled with ecstatic dance, live music, ceremonies, workshops, wellness, nourishing food, nature and community.
Although Jens guides the vision, he sees every gathering as a collective creation. Artists, facilitators, crew members and guests all bring their own presence and energy. His intention is not simply to organise events, but to create places that feel warm, alive and genuinely human.
A MOVEMENT, NOT JUST A FESTIVAL
This is why we dance.
We believe in the power of dance — in the magic of moving without words, in people coming together to connect with themselves, with each other, and with something greater.
And that power doesn’t live at our festivals alone. Every week it moves across the Netherlands — through dozens of organisations, dance floors, tribes and communities.
We dream of a growing dance collective — a living tribe spreading across the country, where dance is not something you do, but something you live.
That’s why we’re not just building festivals. We’re building a movement — one that brings people together across dance floors and communities, and shows the world: this is Why We Dance.
SHARE YOUR DANCE STORY
Why do you dance? What does ecstatic dance bring you? What was your most beautiful moment on the floor — and which DJs, spaces and ceremony leaders shaped your journey?
Share your story and we turn your words into a personal Why We Dance 3.0 visual — delivered to your mailbox, together with your lottery number, and ready for Instagram or Facebook. Your visual shines a light on the DJs, spaces and ceremony leaders who carried your journey — tagging them helps them reach new dancers.
Tag @ecstaticdancefestivalholland, add #WhyWeDance — and you’re automatically entered into the lottery for festival tickets. Each dancer enters once. Your story might light up someone’s first dance.
WHAT’S NEXT
A new space is emerging.
We are working towards a physical home for Chocolate Club in Amsterdam — a place for clubnights, ceremonies, workshops, cacao and community, all year round.
A first circle is forming now. Join the update list and be there for the early access, the open day and the name reveal.