Unscene Berlin

I could feel that something wasn't right.  Even though it was a crowded dancefloor, someone was bumping into me a little too regularly in time with the music, as if they were mirroring my moves. But I still wasn't prepared for what I saw when I turned my head: a little troll of a man, grinding his pelvis as close to my ass as he could get without committing an assault. But actually, he had already crossed that line a few times; it was just that the intentional nature of that assault had been camouflaged by the general mayhem happening around us. The smarmy expression on his face made it pretty clear that this wasn't just an accident, though, as did the fact that he didn't back away once he was caught - not until I 'assisted' him with a sharp shove and the suggestion to stay well the fuck away. He vanished, and I thought the message had been received.  But then, a few minutes later and just a few feet away, I saw him rubbing up against yet another woman in...

Above picture by Katie Brook When I told my Berlin friends and colleagues that I was going to London for New Year’s, many of them stared at me like I was mad. “My Gott...  why ? It’s so expensive there!” said one. "The last time I went to London, it was about 25 pounds to get in to one club!” said another. Other comments I got were: “London parties there are great... but they always finish too early.” “You cannot drink in London. One Prosecco and you’re broke!” “And the men in the clubs there are slimy. They just don’t leave you alone.” I said the same thing to them all: "I'll be fine... I know places that aren't like that." I mean, who needs clubs when you have the squat party scene? Exhibit A: North London.  January 1st.  12:30 a.m.   My friend Al and I are sitting on a bus, headed to a gabba/breakcore/drum n’ bass party in an abandoned church in North London. Not a rented, renovated or otherwise gentrified old church, just a...

Right: Dancers' feet at open air party in Berlin, June 2010 I had an interesting question the other day from a group of English tourists. They asked me where they could go to find an illegal warehouse party in Berlin. The group's spokesperson clarified: "We sometimes go to these parties in Brighton . They aren't advertised and they're usually pretty filthy but the music is way better than it is in a club." He was talking about free parties , (or squat parties, as they are also known). After thinking about it for a few minutes I realized something: there aren't that many free parties in Berlin. There isn't much of an illegal party scene here at all - not in the winter, at any rate.

"Clubs like Berghain didn't invent the underground, they put walls around it. They tax people for doing something that should be free and regulate something that should be spontaneous."  So says the author of this piece, who is looking at the club from a vantage point that's well beneath the ground... If you're a veteran of the free party scene, you can probably remember going to many places like Berghain in the past.  But at Berghain, you'll pay at least twice as much in entry fees (not to mention drinks and water) as you would at a rave or a squat party.  Berghain also has security staff and fashion police - features that are utterly absent from the door at illegal parties.  Entry to Berghain is earned, rather than granted on a first-come-first-serve basis.  And that's before you've paid to get in. The most obvious fence is the one across the front door, guarded by bouncers.  Some people say it's a reasonable boundary to have, because it...