After a few years of preparation, and another year of delay due to covid, the first edition of the Rave the Planet parade finally took place last Saturday bringing back the magic of the iconic Love Parade to the streets of Berlin. Around 200.000 ravers from young to old came together along the track of the parade that lead from Ku’damm over Nollendorfplatz, Potsdamer Straße, Brandenburger Gate all the way over to the Siegessäule in Tiergarten. A caravan of 18 trucks filled with DJs, performers, and ravers made its way through town filling the air with the finest techno the city has to offer.
It was pretty incredible to witness this first edition, especially since I never went to the original Love Parade that took place in Berlin from 1989 to 2006. The energy in the city was incredible, the people were so ecstatic and it felt like seeing Berlin back to its old strength that we almost thought lost due to the last years.
For the first time, we also had the privilege to experience a parade from the perspective of a truck as our friends from Das Techno Team invited us onto their float. It was a really special pleasure to celebrate this event with their crew and performers. It also gave me the opportunity to capture the event in ways I never could before during big street parades. Check out our Instagram and Tiktok for our video recap. And below you’ll find out photo impressions.
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by Frank | Events, Party, Photos
photo: Das Techno Team.
Are you looking to spice up your workout routine with some techno-inspired exercises? Or maybe you need to refresh your dance moves before a triumphant return to the club? In either case, the videos of the Berlin-based Das Techno Team are sure to make you chuckle!
Das Techno Team, the self-described “Techno Fitness made in Berlin”, posts videos combining ravers dancing to awesome electronic beats with a humorous, yet surprisingly accurate description of their moves. With this simple yet ingenious concept, the online sensation is already taking Tiktok and Instagram by storm. Read on…
by Michalina | Party
The clubs of Berlin have reopened with new, Corona-friendly daytime concepts but one key element is missing: dancing. This has forced Berliners to deconstruct the idea of clubbing and ask themselves what they were searching for in clubs before and where they can find it now.
At the risk of stating the obvious, dancing is a big part of club culture. It is fun, it is a way to enjoy the music, and it is refreshing not to sit straight and hold a conversation all the time while being intoxicated. Consequently, the lockdown gave new life to the recently somewhat neglected illegal rave culture. The second part of this series investigates the illegal, private, and spontaneous dance parties that have been popping up all over the city and the controversies surrounding them.
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by Guest Author | Clubs, Party
Halle, photo: Roman März.
There are many other reasons to come to Berlin apart from the clubs but they are definitely among the most popular ones. Techno has its roots in Detroit and the Afrofuturism movement but both the name and the current widespread popularity have to do with what it evolved into in Berlin.
While these parties are still relatively underground in many cities, Berlin has embraced rave culture and built a special relationship with its clubs and their audience. Berghain has already secured legal status as a cultural institution, and other clubs are fighting for the same. Club tourists are also valued by the city’s government as a major contribution to the economy.
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by Guest Author | Clubs, Party
I admit it: I don’t have TikTok and whatever goes on there has so far completely passed by me. But if there is one video that would actually draw me into it, it’s the one by the beautiful Lola. Earlier this month one of her TikTok videos went viral on her Twitter that I want to share with you here as it’s pure genius because not only is it very accurate, it’s also quite hilarious. In a little montage, she performs the different dance styles that you will typically see at techno parties, not only here in Berlin but I assume worldwide, including the “basic 2 step”, the “roly poly”, the “march” and the “berghain veteran sway”. I think everyone who has been to a techno party will recognize these moves easily, and real techno kids will most likely recognize themselves here. The interesting thing is, she is doing it with such a straight face (as is typical at a rave) that you can’t tell if it’s a mockery or pure education. It’s whatever you decide what it is for you. We absolutely love it and hope to bump into this girl once the clubs reopen…
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by Frank | Party
Sassy Berlin stand-up comedian Daniel-Ryan Spaulding has really lifted our spirits during the last weeks of the quarantine as he has been coming up with new hilarious videos on a daily basis about all things corona. You would think this would quickly grow old but in fact, he’s been continuously serving some of his best comedy videos ever. Who would have thought it would get better than his “It’s Berlin” videos that put him on the map in the first place (at least for audiences here).
In his videos, Daniel’s character “Da’Niel” has been mostly sulking and passive-aggressively commenting on the lockdown and all lack of nightlife and sex club activity that he so dearly misses right now. Most notably you could see him throw a tantrum in front of Berghain when it closed down, crawling somewhere through the bushes of Hasenheide to announce the comeback of cruising, or how he fantasized a huge gay orgy in Mauerpark by disobedient horny gay guys who wouldn’t stay in quarantine.
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by Frank | Music, Pandemic, Videos
The Berlin-based all-black-everything design collective number one takes on the city in their new photo series.
Staying true to their drapey and genderfluid aesthetic the Neukölln collective UY sends an array of diverse personalities from the studio into the urban jungle, creating visual disruptions and unexpected synergies in front of the lens.
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by Andy | Fashion
The contemporary dance piece “Half Life” by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar that is performed by the Staatsballett Berlin takes the viewer to an abstract world where intensity is marking every gesture and every decision.
A driving electronic beat makes the half-naked bodies of the dancers pulsate almost trance-like. The whole ensemble moves in unison as if it was one organism totally in synch with the music. The sweat on their skin makes every muscle glisten in the minimal light in front of the black background. Even though the choreography heavily relies on repetition there is a lot of suspense building up and the relief that the viewers experience when one movement breaks out of the formation feels a lot like that delicious “beat drop” moment during an excessive techno club night.
What is remarkable about this piece is the ecstatic reaction of the audience at the end of the performance which is often greeted with standing ovations and screams and shouts. This is not exactly a typical reaction of the Berlin opera and ballet audience.
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by Frank | Theater
Berlin’s queer nightlife joins forces once again. The electronic music festival fighting for a space for inclusivity and self-expression for the WHOLE queer spectrum returns for its third edition this June bringing you a killer lineup of local and international artists and party crews to kick off your festival season with a BANG.
The festival’s third year is still a first-time in many ways, not only for the individual festival-goers and organizers but for the global queer electronic underground. More international acts and crews than ever join forces for the three-day gathering to electronic beats. 27 queer nightlife collectives from 12 different countries come together for the function in Ferropolis (“the city of steel”), a former coal mining site turned breathtaking festival location, just two hours out of Berlin. The stunning area – imagine gigantic metal cranes growing into the sky like it’s a dystopian fiction flic – is also home to strongholds of the festival summer circuit such as MELT and SPLASH Festival. Read on…
by Andy | Music, Party
This Instagram account has only been around for two months and already managed to become an insider amongst the techno crowd in Berlin – meet @nachtclubsberlin! This account is dedicated to showcasing spontaneous pictures of all kinds of party people before and after clubbing in the biggest techno clubs of Berlin. Behind the camera, we met photographer Sabrina Jeblaoui. The former Parisian fell in love with Berlin upon visiting the city several times in the past until she decided to move here on a whim in the Summer of 2017.
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by Franziska | Party, People
