As festival season begins, Clubtuin opens. Club Symbiose is launching its opening event this Saturday 10 May 2025 from 5 p.m. – 2 a.m. at Microstad in the Fellenoord district on the north side of Eindhoven centrum.
Whilst it may feel more ordinary for people to express themselves in the darkness of a nightclub, Symbiose’s Clubtuin (Club Garden) brings the open aire of a festival to an inner city venue. Club season ends in the summer because, of course that is when festival season starts. But an outdoor club is the best of both worlds. It is enjoyable to spend a summer’s day on a sunny terrace listening to dancing music with friends, meeting new ones.
‘We bring a flavour, and you should come and find out if its your taste’
It is the flavour that is ambitious; a progressive place for people to be together in symbiosis. The team is a cocktail of very experienced party designers and music lovers (party purists). Club Symbiose is a club concept pioneered and built by project leader and co-founder Jasper Bloem, co-founder, art director and communications Clara Gustafsson, co-creators Jules Hense and Oskar Zulauf, along side many other individuals without whom the project could not go ahead.
They are interested in how people in Eindhoven can work together to curate the future of nightlife. Symbiose will evolve in several different directions, operating as a multi-facilitating platform for creatives in the city of Eindhoven. At a later stage, a nightclub Club Symbiose will open in the basement of Microstad, and Symbiose Lab will launch as an educational platform for creative activities to take place during the night.
Symbiose presents Clubtuin
The opening of Clubtuin will be a fundraising opportunity for the bigger vision. Entrance tickets on the opening event are on a “choose what you pay” basis and the bar is a means of generating revenue to realise the club in the basement.
Clubtuin will be open for by-weekly day time and evening events. One out of two monthly events will be programmed by Symbiose’s core team. Jasper, Clara, Jules and Oskar are experienced party designers who each come with their own flare. Two of our two monthly events will be In Symbiosis with another collective. The concept shares the platform with different organisations, local artists, young talent and inspiring initiatives within the city who have been longing for an exciting space to share their work. They value connecting community, and together, shaping nightlife in the city.
‘We don’t make parties, we design them’
Curate a space that encourages interactions with others. As a designer it is important to have an overview of the whole picture. Attention to details and in-between spaces, moody lighting, sound balance, curation of space. All come together to create a unique and spontaneous atmosphere that encourages people to open up. Each guest contributes to the atmosphere too. The aim is to curate an urge to give back into the atmosphere.
Club goers are not consumers, they are givers and facilitators themselves.
‘I have an image in mind ….’
As you enter the courtyard of Microstad on Sunday in the bright sunshine (hopefully it’s great weather), you will see a green and pink container. That is the bar. Across the courtyard is the DJ booth with dancing space all around. The opening event starts early, at 5 p.m.. People will arrive and step into a garden filled with plants, music and places to sit.
Tucked around a corner where the music is mellow enough to escape the intensity of the stage sound, there is another seating area. Guest can enjoy the day in whichever way they would like to. They can sit in the sun, they can dance or talk to people. Clubtuin facilitates a vibe that is not strictly a party – party is merely a component of the overall scenography. You can expect to hear electronic music. Techno and house will play a large role in this club, but always with a twist.
There is room for the music to get jazzy and experimental, calm and uptempo, and extend to live instruments. The DJ booth is a place where everything gets mixed up. I absolutely hate the word EDM, but it will be a mix of different types of electronic dance music. EDM is an umbrella term for techno, house, drum and bass, trance, garage, everything electronic. In the end Symboise are music lovers and strive to play underground sound.
Clubtuin is proof of concept. It is merely a hint toward the ambition of its creators, showing potential for alternative forms of nightlife. The initiative focuses on making safe space through education, breaking off from stigma and creating visibility for progressive topics.
Club life and partying can be so much more.
Safety team
By taking part in the adventure, you can help to generate following and popularity for the project. If it’s a success, there will be a new progressive location which is pioneering nightlife in the (developing) Fellenoord region of Eindhoven.
Safety is an element of club life that Symbiose wants to prioritise. Several layers of precautionary measures have been embedded to ensure a non-judgemental atmosphere. Operating from a place of compassion with primary focuses on prevention, facilitation and safety, an educated Awareness Team led by Kiki Bergmans and Annabelle van der Lely will be present at every event. They have written a code of conduct rooted in mutual respect and radical presence.
The Awareness Team can act as a contact point between organisers/security and guests. If the organisation or the security are like the parents, then the awareness team is more like the cool aunt or uncle who make you can actually talk to about sensitive topics, both physical and mental.
Inclusivity is a very important topic for Symbiose. Later in the journey, you can expect to see ADEZIV’s Tool Box that is there to make club experience more accessible for neurodivergent minds. But more significantly, Club Symbiose is setting a precedent for nightlife in the north of Eindhoven. The venue is in a secluded courtyard cut off from outside, and no people live nearby.
The development plan will take a while, but in the coming decade(s) the area around Eindhoven’s infamous flying pins will become a whole new part of Eindhoven centrum; built high with sky scrapers, 7,500 new homes, riverside walkways, paved terraces with shops, cafes and restaurants.
Club Symbiose will bring something unexpected. Until that happens, the central location, without neighbours, in the courtyard at Microstad is the perfect start to the summer.
A base for other arts that fit in the scope of nightlife
Club Symbiose provides room for local artists to showcase their work in a club setting. Artworks can be interactive or stationary, through the media of dance, sculpture, visual arts, sound … the boundaries are there to cross them. Symbiose hopes to encourage more venues to include different aspects of nightlife into their programme, mixing music with art, design and performance.
With pieces that capture imagination, to get lost in details. The combination of art in the space brings cultural value – representing local artists and staying away from commercial, cliche or tacky. Symbiose aims to be authentic and meaningful for the creators involved.
In the future, aside from the club, Symbiose is working on a programme called Symbiose Lab; a carousel of workshops, master classes and crafty activities to do in the evening. The programme will push existing limits of nightlife in the city for people of difference ages, local artists, hobby-crafters, creatives, people who want to explore alternative late-night activities.
In Eindhoven we have a culture drain. Many young people, once they’ve finished their studies or leave a job also leave the city in search of more fulfilling adventures. They don’t find enough excitement in Eindhoven’s cultural habitat. For many people, nightlife is a place to feel accepted.
In general, subcultures allow people to find their community and Symbiose aims to be there to connect and integrate communities. In a city populated with a growing number of expats, Eindhoven relies on creatives and collectives to work together to make the city more soulful, more vibrant. We want Eindhoven to be a place that people from bigger cities would travel to for an adventurous night.
With an ambition to make clubbing a safe and inclusive space and packed full with careful consideration and intriguing subtleties, Symbiose is creating something that will override expectations and exceed any classic party image.
Like a garden, the programme and layout of Club Symbiose is constantly growing. It’s always searching for new additions to the concept, while keeping quality as the baseline. In their flexible and open-minded approach to curating the venue, Club Symbiose brings a vibe that Eindhoven has been missing. The focus here is on the experience that they create, with aims of bringing people together in an ephemeral environment.
The message is simple. Give room for different art forms in a multi-disciplinary space and offer a fun place for people to feel like they can express themselves.
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Read more about Eindhoven here in Dispatches’ archives.
Zoë Prifti
Zoë Prifti is a London-born, Eindhoven-based entrepreneur with a background in design. Zoë is new to writing. In her private practice, she works with fish leather and other organic matter under the broader theme of the circular economy.
