At Women-Only Dance Parties in Europe, Moms Just Want to Have Fun
Family-friendly hours, plenty of Spice Girls, and, most importantly, no men makes for one helluva good night out
The last time Mathilde N. had walked through the doors of one of Paris’s most legendary nightclubs, she was untethered, childless, and carefree. In her early 20s, nights out at the Raspoutine nightclub off the Champs-Élysées, which has hosted everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Leonardo DiCaprio, typically didn’t start until 2 a.m. and wrapped up at dawn. The nights were wild, heady, and, in hindsight, maybe even a bit scandalous.
Nearly 20 years later, on an early Tuesday evening in February, Mathilde found herself outside the same club once again—this time as a wife and mother of two young children, on the cusp of turning 40—for a women-only dance party.
The nostalgia and irony hit hard.
“I used to come here a million years ago when I didn’t have kids,” she says. “It’s a funny kind of paradox, going to a place where you had the wildest nights, leaving at 5 a.m. and [now] going back at 7 p.m. with women your age.”
Busy women like Mathilde—who is juggling motherhood and a new business—are the target audience for Diva Paris, the latest women-only dance party in Europe. Over the last few years, club nights where no boys are allowed have become increasingly popular across Europe, giving single ladies, moms, and even young-hearted grandmothers a safe space to let go and dance like no one—or, at least, no man—is watching.
Events are held at hours that fit with mom lifestyles, most commonly right after work when they still have reserves of energy and can either kiss their kids goodnight before strapping on their dancing shoes, or get home in time to tuck them in. “We do have energy,” Mathilde says. “We just have it at a different time of day.”
Earlier hours also means women don’t have to worry about missing the last train home or walking dark roads alone at night. While spiked drinks have become a real concern at regular nightclubs, women feel safe to leave their cocktails unattended at these events. And without the male gaze, there is less pressure to look, move, or behave a certain way; women can dress as seductively, or as slovenly, as they want.
The result is a major vibe shift.
“The fact that there are only women means that they let go of all inhibitions a lot quicker,” says Constance d’Amécourt, co-founder of Diva Paris, which threw its first party in February 2025 with immediate success.
Unlike at a regular rave or nightclub, there is no warm-up. Busy moms and career women don’t want to waste any time. They hit the dance floor immediately, offloading weeks of stress and anxiety by singing at the top of their lungs to the Spice Girls, ABBA, or the Dirty Dancing soundtrack and moving their bodies in ways they haven’t in years—or maybe ever.
“Women are happy to be in a space that is safe and supportive, and that creates a more relaxed atmosphere, without pressure, without scrutiny, without judgement,” d’Amécourt says. “The idea is not to exclude men, but to offer a moment for women.”
Like Mathilde, d’Amécourt always loved going out and enjoyed a thriving social life. But after giving birth to her third baby last year, she felt increasingly isolated and restless and recognized the need to take a breather and feel like a woman, not just a mom.
When she came across the women-only event Mama Geht Tanzen (Mama Goes Dancing) in Germany, she knew the concept would be a hit in Paris. And she wasn’t wrong. Diva Paris’s latest event in April, only the fourth since its launch, drew 400 attendees to the Boum Boum club, just a couple of blocks from Raspoutine.
Anna Schumacher, 29, and Andrea Rücker, 37, held their first Mama Geht Tanzen party in Wuppertal, Germany, in 2023. It was supposed to be a one-off for their fellow mom friends who, like them, were frustrated at the lack of clubbing options with early bedtimes. Instead, the concept took off and has since expanded to 200 cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden, where moms party between the reasonable hours of 8 and 11 p.m. In April, Schumacher left her job as a social worker and Rücker quit her job as a civil engineer to dedicate themselves full-time to the movement.
“The energy is different because you only have three hours to dance, so it’s a party from the first second,” says Schumacher. “The women come in, the music starts, and everyone is dancing.” The ambiance at a Mama Geht Tanzen at 9 p.m. is no different than a normal club at its peak at 2 a.m., she adds.
“It was two fingers up to the establishment, stereotypes, and all that’s expected of moms.”
— DJ Nikki Beatnik
One of the earliest pioneers of the concept in Europe is DJ Nikki Beatnik, who launched Mums That Rave in 2019 in London and has since hosted 23 events. She had spent years touring with artists like Kelis, Kelly Rowland, and All Saints and playing in some of London’s hottest nightclubs, but after she had a baby in 2014 the gigs started drying up.
“All the time and experience, everything I’ve been doing to kick down doors for women seemed to almost evaporate overnight,” she says.
When she couldn’t find the kind of “mom tribe” that shared her interests, she created her own, launching an online community for like-minded women who still loved dancing to hip-hop, house, and drum and bass and refused to shrink themselves into docile motherhood.
“It was two fingers up to the establishment, stereotypes, and all that’s expected of moms,” she says. “Because going to clubs and club culture has always been a rebellion against the authorities, and has always been about starting your own thing.”
Natalie Edwards, a single mom of two teenagers who lives in the town of Coulsdon, outside London, went to her first Mums That Rave event three years ago by herself after her friend canceled at the last minute. She’s since become a regular and has befriended women she wouldn’t otherwise meet in her daily life—a handbag designer, a jewelry designer, and another in the wellness sphere—women who have become new dinner and travel companions.
“Because we’re all there as moms, we kind of have an unspoken understanding,” Edwards says. “There’s no judgment, no ill-feeling, no bitchiness, no agenda, no guy trying to chat you up…it’s just a really chill, fun vibe.”
Along with Millennials navigating careers and young kids, women-only parties have given Gen X moms, who are simultaneously juggling perimenopausal symptoms and moody teenagers, an unexpected outlet in the second half of their lives.
For Haingo Randria, Diva Paris gave her a second chance at youth. A widow to three daughters between the ages of 10 and 20, and a nanny to three young children, Randria was accustomed to pushing her needs aside. As a busy mom and caregiver who lived modestly, she never went shopping or wore makeup, she says, until she started going out to Diva Paris dance parties. For the first time in her life, Randria surprised her daughters and did something out of character, buying herself a sparkly top trimmed with silver sequins, a pair of matching sequin ballerina flats, and a bright red lipstick.
“It’s not for others that I do this—it’s for myself,” Randria says. “It’s really boosted my confidence.”
