{"id":4810,"date":"2026-04-22T05:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/4810\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:19:07","slug":"third-culture-kids-the-djs-reshaping-amsterdam-nightlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/4810\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Culture Kids: the DJs reshaping Amsterdam nightlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AThird Culture Club founder Moataz Rageb DJing. Photograph courtesy of Moataz Rageb<\/p>\n

Moataz Rageb started organising parties to share his love of Arab music with the world. Now he\u2019s building an entire scene<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Parallel<\/a>, a club in Amsterdam Noord, is booming. This space is used to the high-octane pulse of techno but tonight, it\u2019s being taken on a different journey: sledgehammer beats give way to Bedouin rhythms, minimal electronica is swapped for riotous Egyptian shaabi edits, Eurodance goes Persian. The energy is frenetic, chaotic even. This is exactly what Moataz Rageb<\/a>, the night\u2019s organiser, wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is Third Culture Club<\/a>, a party built around sounds that defy genre or geography. It emerged, says Rageb, from a lack of visibility for new music from the south-west Asia and north Africa region in Amsterdam. Alongside his other night, Disco Arabesquo<\/a> \u2014 one of the city\u2019s only Arab disco parties \u2014 it is part of a growing wave of diasporic DJs reshaping the city\u2019s nightlife.<\/p>\n

In a scene long dominated by western electronic music, these nights reflect a broader shift: one driven by artists drawing on diasporic identities to create their own spaces, sounds and audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout my travels, I met DJs and producers who are geniuses,\u201d Rageb says of his time spent in Egypt<\/a>, Lebanon and Dubai over the past few years. \u201cI wanted to bring them to Europe. The stuff they were doing was more future-leaning, experimenting with new sounds and blending genres. So I started the idea of Third Culture Club to invite these friends and have a club night centred around third culture kids.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a hit. With DJs from Lebanon<\/a> to Egypt and Iran<\/a>, sets move between Palestinian rap, Egyptian street music and Persian disco \u2014 a far cry from Amsterdam\u2019s usual programming.<\/p>\n

For Rageb, the party\u2019s success reflects the tensions of growing up between cultures. Born in Amsterdam to Egyptian parents, he says it wasn\u2019t until he heard Do You Love Me?<\/a> by the Bendaly Family that he recognised a space for music combining Arabic<\/a> and western influences. Since then, he has been collecting Arabic music cassettes.<\/p>\n

\"AThird Culture Club night, autumn 2025. Photograph by Emad Mshalwat, courtesy of Third Culture Club<\/p>\n

A former teacher \u2014 \u201cI left my day job to become Batman\u201d \u2014 the 38-year-old has been DJing for eight years under the name Disco Arabesquo, which also lends its name to his party. He recalls travelling to Cairo to a stranger\u2019s garage to source cassettes for his first event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they were going to kidnap me,\u201d he says. Instead, he found around 11,000 tapes, many of which now shape his sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people coming to Disco Arabesquo wanted to change perceptions of the region,\u201d he says. \u201cThird Culture Club goes beyond that. People already understand the region is creative, multicultural and multifaceted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe centre identity and the DJ\u2019s own story, which makes it different. The DJ decides the direction of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the DJs shaping the scene alongside Rageb is Katayoun Arian, known as Katayoun<\/a>. A Dutch<\/a>-Iranian artist and curator, she brings a narrative approach to her sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy curatorial work defines how I DJ,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of thinking around genre-building. I tell a narrative about music history, almost like an art historian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AKatayoun Arian, who DJs as Katayoun and runs the Disco Diaspora night in Amsterdam. Photograph by Lisa van den Berg<\/p>\n

Her sets draw connections across musical traditions, tracing shared histories rather than flattening them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about bringing different geographies together \u2014 Arabic and Persian music \u2014 and finding the overlaps,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not interested in presenting something as exotic. I do the real deep dive, the real research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Rageb, Katayoun has built her own platforms, including Disco Diaspora<\/a>, a party focused on global diasporic sounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doing activism around 2015 and we didn\u2019t wait for anyone to give us space,\u201d she says. \u201cWe organised it ourselves. There was no guarantee people would like the music, but it felt necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, sharing Iranian music is also about drawing out histories that are often overlooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese stories are like dormant seeds,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can plant them and let them grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

What distinguishes nights like Disco Diaspora, Disco Arabesquo and Third Culture Club is not just the music but the way they allow culture to tell its own story \u2014 outside the news framework through which the region is often understood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is also, Rageb says, a product of the city itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this could happen anywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cIt only works in global places like Amsterdam.\u201d<\/p>\n