Unscene Berlin

When people arrive in this town - particularly when they take one of the alternative tours  that I organise - they usually ask me where the best parties are to be found in Berlin. As anyone who's lived in Berlin a while knows, it is a hard question to answer. That's because the best nights tend to be quite nomadic, which makes them hard to pin down to any single venue. Berlin's best  club  nights tend to be more like word of mouth 'name brands' that move around from place to place, never staying in one spot for long. There's a reason why there are so many floating (as in, on a boat) parties in this city, people, and it's got more to do with ease of transport than it does with any desire to be seen "yacht clubbing it"! Tal der Verwirrung is an excellent example of this: a trippy, downtempo party that plays slow, disco house and trance, it has moved around to at least three venues in the past five years, and probably more that I'm unawa...

So: you're new in Berlin, or just visiting for New Year's Eve?  Welcome... and good luck! Foto by: fuckyeahanarchopunk.tumblr.com New Year's Eve in Berlin can be an overrated and overpriced experience, but only if you read too much into it. As in most cities, there are lesser-known parties which turn out to be amazing while many of the massively overhyped parties fall short of the value suggested by their price tag.  In this post, I aim to help you decide which is which. But, before I get around to talking about the actual parties, here are a few general tips on doing New Year's Eve in Berlin.   Don't Get Bombed In this city, the end of the year party always goes off with a bang... just maybe not in the way you were hoping for.  If having fireworks aimed at your face by a laughing Chav who's swinging a bottle of peppermint schnapps in his free hand sounds like fun, you'll venture out into the streets between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. on December...

Friday the 13th is supposed to be one of those days when bizarre and inexplicable things happen.  But, if the day should fail to live up to your expectations, you could do worse than to drop in to Blitz #15: A Genderfucking New Experience at Horst. Photos from past events and flyers (left) suggest a veritable bazaar of the bizarre awaits you there. And at only six euros in before midnight, it's perfect for bargain hunters, too. Open air action seems to be picking up this weekend... come rain or shine. Griessmühle (right) and Neustockland will be putting on their regular summer events on Friday & Saturday , respectively. We went to Griessmühle last Friday expecting to have an early night but, as the hours got later the stoned house music drank a Club Mate and livened up.  At 12:30 a.m. the dance-floor was packed, glittery girls & boys bouncing around to the beats. They'd clearly been planning on moving on to a more hip nightspot after Griessmuehle, but the...

Time now for my long overdue roundup of Silvester parties! Silvester is the German name for New Year's Eve. The name comes from Saint Sylvester, who passed away on 31 December 335. Since his death has become synonymous with one of the biggest celebrations on the German calendar, I assume that old Sylvester must have been a bit badass. I'm picturing a 4th century dilettante, stumbling around a monastery strewn with empty barrels of sekt , his followers draped over their pews with robes askew, groaning in hungover agony. But, historical speculation aside, here is my preview...