Welcome to the Tropical Coffee Rave

A man sidles up alongside me, bopping his head tentatively as he surveys the dance floor, a multicoloured mosaic of glittered ravers.

Trying my best not to be the leery guy leaning at the bar, I turn and ask what’s with the outfit.

“It’s tropical,” he says, bringing my eyes down to his gold leggings which taper down into his leather cowboy boots. “And it’s seasonal,” he adds, caressing his brown knitted scarf with an unnerving stare for soon after 7am on a Thursday morning.

We’re at the Tropical Coffee Rave, the second such early morning, pre-work party to be held at Extract Coffee Roasters next to the M32 in St Werburgh’s.

The dance floor is full with about 200 wide-eyed revellers twirling and shimmying while gripping cups of fresh coffee from Extract in one hand and cinnamon buns from The Old Market Assembly in the other.

My new friend introduces himself as Dickie. I’m not sure if it’s his real name or a reference to the way he’s dressed this morning. I don’t probe.

Our brief exchange over the loud afrobeat coming from the DJs in the corner is cut short as he looks for “my girl” before heading off to work for the rest of the day caring for children with learning difficulties.

Most of the people I bump into in the warehouse of the coffee roasters are nipping in before work. “I’m going to be chopping veg like mad when I get into work,” says a chef at Hamilton House, high on the caffeine and sugar rush of the glazed buns.

A couple who have just exited the dance floor tell me their inhibitions were set free by the power of the morning rave. “It’s not like going out after work when everyone’s still a bit uptight and anxious,” they say. “Coming at 7am, everyone is just ready.”

Anyone who wasn’t ready was cajoled into the fun at about 8.15am when the records stopped spinning for a brief moment while one of the DJs forced everyone to partner up “ballroom style” for a bit of swing dance.

Under the fake palm trees for a brief moment there was a synergy. So many happy faces so awake and alive when perhaps on a normal day they would be closing their front doors with weary eyes as they begun the depressing Bristol commute.

Reality bites though, and by about 8.45am the dance floor is emptying as ravers skulk off to their day jobs. There go the couple, picking up their satchels and heading for their offices to meet their colleagues in their wine merchants and festival production teams.

Glitter is being rubbed off and spandex peeled away from the skin as the crowds break out through the warehouse flaps and onto the industrial estate with the bright morning sun rising over the jammed motorway.

A balloon, previously a coconut, falls from one of the palm trees and onto the warehouse floor as I notice for the first time the coffee roasters hidden behind the festival-quality decor.

Extract employee Bella explains that she will be roasting beans by 11am as soon as the rest of the decor is pulled down and the hangers-on booted out. Like everyone, her day is just starting – albeit with an unusual boost.

“To get up early and and revved up for the day in an interesting way makes people happy,” says organiser Alex Geldenhuys, 33, from St Paul’s, who runs the rave on behalf of New Dawn Traders. It’s the second such event in Bristol after last year’s debut as part of the Food Connections festival (returning to the city this year from April 28 to May 7).

“I’m surprised people turn up on the day, so we must be doing something right,” she adds. “I think it’s quite good to come together not around alcohol. People are chatting and hanging around and getting to move, doing a great job on the dance floor.”