Kavka Oudaan

Kavka Oudaan is a 350-capacity concert club in central Antwerp, housed within a youth-culture centre whose rooms also serve DJs, bands, dancers, exhibitors and workshop makers. That setting is its concrete distinction: a show takes place inside a working creative building, with a café behind the courtyard and a small café stage adding another musical corner. The result is a compact venue with the activity of a broader cultural house around it.

A school building becomes Kavka

The story begins in 2000, when the City of Antwerp gave a group of young people use of the refectory and gym at primary school Musica, Oudaan 14. They launched youth club KV-Kaffee, named for Kindervreugd, the organisation behind it. By 2004, the project had become the independent youth centre Kavka, built around space for young people to make events and develop their own ideas.

A later change sharpened the identity of this particular room. On September 28, 2018, Kavka brought its two sites under one umbrella: the city-centre building became Kavka Oudaan, while the Kiel location became Kavka Zappa. During the pandemic pause, Oudaan reopened limited room use on June 15, 2020 after almost 100 days; concerts and parties remained on hold at that point. Those dates frame a venue whose name and daily purpose have kept evolving with its users.

The room and the bill

Kavka Oudaan welcomes independently conceived concerts, parties and film presentations, with organisers invited to discuss availability and conditions and offered tailored guidance through the process. Its own programme also seeks young musicians, bands, DJs and other makers. Expect a broad local-facing mix: indie, rock, hip-hop, R&B, pop, metal, folk and alternative acts all fit the calendar’s lane. For concertgoers, the useful physical facts are simple: a 350-person club room, plus the courtyard-side Kavka Café and its small stage, makes this a flexible night out with a close-scale main room.