Last week Berlin saw the second European edition of the No Commission international series of events by music producer Swizz Beatz’ The Dean Collection and BACARDÍ. For three days the mega event took over the Kraftwerk Rummelsburg with a large scale exhibition of over 30 artists from all over the world and big parties with international and local acts such as Major Lazer, Alicia Keys, and Noah Becker’s band Bakery playing live.
I had the chance to go to the opening last Thursday and I have to admit that I was pretty blown away by the size of it. I hadn’t been in the location before, nor could I really picture how the mix of art and music event would really play out. But the set-up looked great. It was so grand, and despite the apocalyptic rain on that day the huge venue was packed.
The exhibition took up the first half of the space with huge black and red walls set up at different angles giving the huge artworks a perfect background to shine. I liked the art that I saw, very expressive and colorful, different genres, different media. A really wild and stimulating mix. In the lower level there was also a smaller exhibition with limited edition prints for art fans with smaller budgets. So far, over 3 Million Dollars have been generated from the sales of the art in all of the other editions that happened since last year, all of which go directly to the artists, without any commission to the organizers or agents. I sure hope the Berlin edition has also added a bit to that proud sum.
Passing by a pair of big BACARDÍ bars where you could enjoy some of the exquisite cocktails they developed for this event you went up the stairs into the music arena facing a big stage with a spectacular light set-up. On the opening night Swizz Beatz was at the decks before Major Lazer took over to finish the night off with a bang. I hear on the second night Alicia Keys, the wife of Swizz Beatz’ Kasseem Dean, chimed in by singing the Berlin version of her song New York. On the third and final night local musician Noah Becker played some records before performing live with his band Bakery.
I’m glad that I was able to join the fun. This was definitely one of the bigger events of this kind, one that doesn’t come too often. And it doesn’t happen so often that you get to see international music stars like Major Lazer and Alicia Keys up close. Of course I took lots of photos to share my experience with you here on the blog. Enjoy!
Thanks for the support by Bacardí
More photos of No Commission: Berlin on the next page!
