🦥 #23 From Groundskeeper to Club Owner: The Story Behind Traum

Today

• ✋ Antwerpreneur: Carlos Michielsen- Founder of Traum

• 🧃 Giggle Juice: By extrafabulous_comics

• 💎 Quiz Question: Can you guess the city?

✋ Antwerpreneur: Carlos Michielsen

A club can be easy to enter. 

Building one is something else.

Carlos has spent his entire life in nightlife. From bartender to coat check to promoter to DJ to manager, just so he could one day run the club he's been dreaming about since he was 16.

Here's how Traum was built and what it takes to run a club that chooses quality over hype.

The Rhythm of Life in Nightlife

From Monday to Friday, his days look surprisingly normal.

He starts at 9am, working through admin, programming, logistics, and meetings. The "invisible" half of nightlife.

But weekends? Entirely different.

He and his colleague Tatjana switch nights. One takes Friday. The other takes Saturday.

A typical Friday when it's his turn?

Start at 9am. Work until 5pm. Go home. Shower. Eat. Head to the club at 9pm. Stay until 6 or 7 in the morning.

There's no partying.

Just responsibility for the guests, the staff, the DJs, and the building.

"If something goes wrong, someone has to talk to the authorities," he explains. "That someone is me or Tatjana."

The Logistics Behind the Lights

A good club night starts long before the first beat drops.

For every DJ, Traum handles flights, hotels, ground transport, food and drinks, timing, everything.

Touring DJs often play 2–3 nights per week, flying from one city to another with little sleep.

So Traum makes sure they walk into a professional, warm, structured environment.

Revenue, Reality & Volatility

Traum earns money through tickets and the bar, with some sponsors helping in the early days.

The full club holds 630 people across two rooms.

But the business? Volatile. Uncertain. Sometimes brutal.

The vision of Traum is clear: Most of the time no big commercial names. A counterweight to the current nightlife.

They want people to discover, not consume. To listen, not just follow hype. To be part of a community, not just a crowd.

And that comes with risk.

Sometimes the lineup hits. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a DJ with a big following sells fewer tickets than expected and the bar consumption drops with it.

"That's something I had to learn the hard way this year," Carlos admits.

Luckily, Traum has two rooms and can play with capacity.

"If you keep your costs in check, you can make a nice profit. But sometimes you pay a lot for a DJ hoping it's gonna sell out, and it doesn't. Because people don't know them, or because another club has a big name that night."

Years of Experience Leading to Traum

He learned the basics at Kavka: how to run nights, build a P&L, price tickets, estimate bar revenue, calculate lineup and promo costs.

From there:

Co-founded City Flow, as DJ. Managed Kissinger (pop-up club). Managed Ampere, then Capital. Lastly, he was the F&B Manager at Zomer van Antwerpen.

The goal? Always the same: start his own club.

A Life Spent in Nightlife

He started working in nightlife at 16, needing a student job.

His first gig was at Club Petrol, "I lived in Petrol for 5 months as a groundskeeper while I was in University," he laughs. 

His first big project was City Flow in 2010, a drum & bass concept he started with his partner Frank Raes as young DJs who wanted to have fun.

It exploded.

They sold out venues across Belgium. Played in Amsterdam, Ibiza, Los Angeles, Geneva, Berlin.

"As young guys, it hit me: wow, this could be a future. I can really throw events myself and make something out of it."

Then came the management years.

For both Ampere and Capital, he heard they were starting a new club, hunted down an email address, and cold-pitched himself.

"I just emailed them saying who I am, my ambition, and asking if they needed someone."

Every job was preparation. Every venue was a lesson.

The Building That Changes Everything

When COVID hit, Carlos was managing Capital.

Nightlife shut down. First to close, last to open.

"I looked around and thought, what can I do with my life except for nightlife? I've never done anything else," he admits. 

Thankfully, the Belgian government supported him and others in the industry. "But I would not hesitate one moment to go work in a supermarket or a car wash if necessary." he says.

And then, after COVID, he went back to Capital. Nightlife was back.

Then joined Zomer Van Antwerpen as F&B Manager but only for three months.

Because something happened that doesn't happen twice in a lifetime.

The old Café D'Anvers building became available.

"As an entrepreneur in nightlife, I knew it would never ever happen again in the rest of my life. There's so much history that comes with that building."

He called. Conversations started.

Traum was brought to life.

Why Not Revive Café D'Anvers?

They changed the name because Traum is a new chapter, not a resurrection.

Traum doesn't focus on huge names, and there's also a lot of connotation with the old name.

They kept the architecture. 

But everything you don't see changed; electricity, safety systems, insurance requirements.

They invested +100k to get everything in order for the opening.

In April last year, he rebuilt the stage to be completely modular. Now it adjusts for live setups, different heights, different widths.

The sound system got upgraded to a Funktion One soundsystem, giving a full experience on the dance floor.

Traum started as a one-year pop-up to test the waters. Last year, they negotiated the contract and are staying open.

Traum isn't going anywhere.

The Hardest Build: It's Your Baby Now

Traum has been the most difficult project of Carlos's life.

Not only because of the work but because of the stress that comes with it. 

"When I worked in other places as a manager, there was always somebody above me who took the risk. Now, it's a different level of stress that I didn't know," he explains.

He looks back on previous bosses differently now.

"I can understand why they made certain decisions or behaved in certain ways. Now I see what kind of financial pressure and stress comes along with it."

It's one thing to run someone else's club. It's another thing entirely when it's yours.

The Team Behind the Nights

Running Traum means managing around 30 people on busy nights.

The core team is 6 people: Tatjana, Maarten, David, Jarno, Esra and Carlos.

DTM Funk / David Tricot (booker), "a really creative guy with wide and deep knowledge of contemporary club music" Maarten (our in-house marketing manager who controls all this around branding, communication, marketing, advertising). Jarno, our  bar manager, Esra, our lead technician. And of course, Tatjana (admin and operations), "the administrative backbone of everything we do"

Programming, DNA & Saying No

Traum books its own nights but also collaborates with external promoters.

Some, like Soulful Sessions and Freed Events, rent the venue, handle lineup and promotion, Traum provides the space. Entrance goes to the promoter, bar goes to Traum.

Others, like Nachtlawaai, do co-curations with them, where they build the lineup together. 

But not everyone gets in.

"It's a big place and you have a lot of promoters who are not ready for it, or promoters who are ready but don't align with our DNA," Carlos explains.

Nightlife is creative. Identity is everything. DNA matters.

"We know we're different from the rest, and it's not a space for everybody. But that's a differentiator from the other ones."

The Craziest Things He's Done

For City Flow anniversaries, they did events that lasted the number of years celebrated: 1 day, 2 days, 3 days… up to 5 days of workshops and shows across Amsterdam, Antwerp, and London.

For Traum, one of the highlights was booking Ricardo Villalobos, a Chilean-German DJ who's really hard to book.

What Nightlife Really Is

People outside the scene often reduce nightlife to stereotypes. Drugs. Chaos. Partying.

But Carlos sees it differently.

"It's a free space. A place to be who you are. To meet people in real life. To disconnect. There's something really uniting about being on the dance floor, dancing together with people who love the same music, being moved through music."

Traum even has a no-phone policy on the dance floor. It’s not enforced aggressively, but encouraged through education.

"We thought about putting stickers on cameras, but now phones have two cameras, so you'd need a bunch of stickers. And when you leave, the street will be filled with stickers."

They're still figuring it out. 

But the goal is clear: educate club behavior, don't force it.

Mentors Who Guided Him

Two people shaped his path:

Zara De Meyer, nightlife manager of Antwerp, who guided him through the complicated city permit process. 

And Robbe Van Bogaert, a Youth Service mentor from his City Flow days who helped him navigate early challenges and has supported him for the past year. 

"It's always easy to have somebody in the city who guides you and says, for that problem, you need to speak to that person."

What's Next

In the next two years, the vision is clear.

Keep growing. Keep building the community. Keep booking great DJs.

Traum is already influencing Antwerp's nightlife scene. When they announced they will keep going, messages flooded in. 

"People are happy there's a club like Traum where they can discover, feel safe and connect with peers.” 

The city's club scene has exploded too: Ampere, Capital, Garage, WOOM. And more on the way with initiatives like Club Ziek. That's something Antwerp hasn't seen in a while.

Four Lessons from 15 Years in Nightlife

• Save more money: The financial volatility is real. Cash reserves matter more than you think.

• Doubt yourself less: Believe in what you're doing. Don't follow the hype. Trust your DNA.

• Take it seriously: Calculate everything you do. Know what you want to do. Be aware of the risks. Who you want to be as a company.

• Take care: Of yourself and the people around you. 

The Most Rewarding Part

"When I see Traum with people really enjoying the music and enjoying what we set up there. The DJs, the artwork, the interviews, all of it. Seeing people enjoy our baby, that's always the most rewarding thing."

Unlike other businesses with one grand finale per year, nightlife delivers every week.

"Sometimes it's harsh reality if there's too few people. But even when there's too few people and they're having a really good time and the DJ has a good time and they tell their agency, they tell friends. That can make it all worthwhile."

Traum isn't just a nightclub.

It's 20 years of learning every job, every angle, every mistake.

It's taking over a legendary building and making it something new.

It's surviving a crisis, standing by your values, and coming out stronger.

It's building a space where people can disconnect from their phones and connect through music.

That's Traum.

Carlos’ Recommendations

• Club: Open Ground in Wuppertal. It's an old World War II bunker and looked at as one of the best clubs in the world right now.

• Podcast: Welcome to the AA by Andries Beckers and Alex Agnew.

• Authors: Jef Geeraerts and Joost Vandecasteele 

• Song listening on repeat: Sleepless on Venus by Dead Man's Chest

• Favorite place in Antwerp: Smudged 

Antwerpreneur-to-Antwerpreneur Q&A

Question: Do you believe that an entrepreneur is only the type of person who has a perfect morning routine, who works long hours and grinds or can it be a normal person? 

Carlos’ answer: “I think you need to grind. There’s nobody who’s gonna do it for you. But I don’t think you need to have an autistic schedule like Elon Musk. My kind of entrepreneurship is different because I also do nights. The rhythm is different. There’s a lot of responsibility on your shoulders as an entrepreneur, because there are people you give a job to.”

Where can you find Carlos?

You can find him on [email protected] or through Instagram. 

🧃 Giggle Juice

🗑️ 

💎 Quiz Question

Which city is most widely recognized as the birthplace of early techno music in the 1980s?

A) Berlin

B) Detroit

C) London

D) Ibiza

_{You can find the answer at the end}