The vibes are indie-alternative, the place is cosy and the vibes are warm. De Gudde Wëllen (GW) has for over 10 years brought music and community together, adding a burst of authenticity and unmanufacturable vibes to Luxembourg city.
Behind it all: three friends who wanted to keep the music going.
De Gudde Wëllen started in 2014 from the ground up. Its three founders Ben Thommes, Jaakes Hoffmann, and Luka Heindrichs took over the space and built it up from within – literally.
Opportunity presented itself when former indie space d:qliq was looking for someone to take over.
Heindrichs recalled: “For the generation of people who were young, alternative, and musically interested, d:qliq was a very big, very important place.”
Discussions began in 2014 and by the end of the year, GW had opened.
“Ben was in charge of the bar. Jacques was in charge of everything technical: equipment, music, sound engineering and so on. And I was doing booking, administration and communication”, Luka Heindrichs told RTL Today.
Heindrichs, whose musical journey started in the early 2000s “very poorly managing a band of friends called Inborn that was gaining some momentum” had also committed himself to organising concerts and a festival. Those who have been in Luxembourg long enough may recall the Food For Your Senses festival which ran from 2011 to 2019: it was from here that the GW network grew.
“There were five years where [the festival and GW] crossed one another“, said Heindrichs. “This whole network from the festival was very strong: Some friends that were carpenters helped refurnish [GW], some friends that were designers helped to do this and that and that. It was really like a very collective moment.”
“We were kind of like the champions of the indie and the underground movement”, Heindrichs said, “of the non-institutional, also the very politically engaged”.
Such was the commitment of the team that their jobs and lives were one: for the first years, they lived there.
“Upstairs, on the highest floor, that was Ben’s apartment, he stayed here for four years or something”, Heindrichs recalled. “And the level underneath, the green room for the artists? That’s where I was. When a band needed to sleep there, I would just sleep in another room, on a couch.”
From this the team got to work building the kind of place they themselves would love to frequent: a proper music club with at least one show a week, international bands visiting, and a home base for Luxembourg’s alternative community.
“A place where you can go and dance and club, but nobody is going to pay attention to your clothes or to any of that stuff”, Heindrichs said. “A place where you can let loose which has a familiar feeling. And [as long as] you’re a little bit well-behaved, you’re fine.”
Today, GW presents a diverse programme of events throughout the week, ranging from indie and punk to jazz and pop. Artists who perform at GW are generally professional bands who tour, and with a capacity of 80, the space is designed for “somebody who is doing 20 shows a year, started five years ago and is starting to try and get through”, Heindrichs said. “I think it’s important to have a place where these acts from outside can come and play.”
“We work on a professional level, and I think, for people that know a little how it works, they can sense that. Artists who play here, they’re always very happy with the production quality.”
When it comes to genres, the team hosts “pretty much everything” but adds that “typically nothing is going to play here that we really think is really shit!”
“If we’re interested, and then we check them out, we look at what they have going on, what kind of venues that they play, what kind of momentum”, Heindrichs said. “It’s always something that we can stand for.”
As far as today’s audience goes, the GW team welcomes a strong mix of Luxembourgers and international guests. “You have people that are 18 years old and people that are 60”, he added. “I think it’s pretty clear to everyone that this place is a place for everyone.”
With more than a decade under their belt, the GW team has over the years also spread out in various spots through the city. One of the most popular: Gudde Weather, a project launched during COVID amidst a massive dip in everyday business and guests.
“In summer people want to be outside and they want to be in the sun. And we didn’t have a spot like this because we didn’t have a terrace. So that became our terrace.”
They’ve more recently done the same with Mikrokosmos, a pop-up in the park which opened in May 2025.
“Basically, we come up with the concepts and we try to make good places out of places that have big potential but that are not really being valued properly”, Heindrichs said.
Their latest venture: taking over Buvutte, bar of the Rotondes. This has also helped them grow and keep their staff.
“It was a little bit frustrating because we had really good people working in summer and then in September we were running out of work for them. And so the idea of entering Rotondes was interesting for us.”
For anyone who has been to either venue, this is a match made in alternative heaven. Speaking of his friends turned colleagues in Rotondes, Heindrichs said, “There’s a lot of crossover. We listen to kind of the same music, a little bit on the same side of the spectrum. We go to events together, we go and check out bands, and we have exchanges about things.”
This partnership is good news for past, present, and future indie kids: Luxembourg’s alternative scene is in safe hands.
Since they first began, the GW scene has seen some developments: from known friends to new regulars, and from one generation to another.
“When I walked around here [before], I knew like 80% of the people. But at some point, there was like a switch”, Heindrichs said. “There was a dip in the visitors at some point – and then it kind of built up again with people that we didn’t know, who were younger than us.”
”The audience is still the same in style as it was at the beginning”, he smiled. “It’s us, 10 years ago.”
Having recently gone through a major revamp in their visual identity including a new corporate identity, a new website, and a new way of communicating, the GW team has had the opportunity to reflect on themselves, how they approach things, who they are, and what they do.
Even with a new image, though, their core remains. “I don’t think our role, our position within the landscape of clubs and places to go and party or to check out stuff, has fundamentally changed since we started”, Heindrichs said.
“Reaching 10 years was a highlight in itself.”
True to their indie ethic, he added that staying grounded is important, too.
“We’re a really tiny place, and we address a small audience”, Heindrichs said. “So it’s good to see how the place evolves, goes further, and reinvents itself.”
