Unscene Berlin

Photo via Manic Panic Website You know it's full-on summertime in Berlin when every weekend is suddenly exploding at the seams with hotly-anticipated events.  Even if you're picky (like yours truly) you may feel the need to create a few clones of yourself in order to keep up with it all! But there's no need to get burned as you pursue the heat of the action : just read our shortlist to find the hottest places to go manic or fight the summertime panic in the coming weeks. Christopher Street Day (CSD - Saturday July 23rd   Why is it manic?  Well it's the largest gay pride march in Europe, and it's happening in one of its most liberal cities , so Berlin CSD is massive, mad and saucy fun. And this year's motto ('Thanks for Nothing' ) is sufficiently tough and timely to appeal to our surly alter egos, too. Tresor's 25th birthday party - Friday July 22 to Monday July 2 5  This will be a marathon of mania,...

Back in 2012, Unscene predicted the revival of the acid sound in Berlin, and it still seems to be going strong.  And better yet, it still seems to be entwined with the same radical spirit as ever. Tonight's Anti Repression Soliparty at the Rauchaus in Kreuzberg (which aims to raise funds to help Rigaer Strasse's embattled residents) features acid techno DJ's. The MVMNT13 # 2 party at Urban Spree, which will collect goods and funds for refugees stranded in Idomeni, will play "house-acid-techno" among other styles.  Mensch Meier's Serendubity party on Saturday features "Acid Dub Foundation" at their party, which aims to "celebrate individual and cultural diversity while combining/interchanging various aspects of our personal identities, characteristics and rolls (sic) in today's society." Even the more mainstream Klubnacht at Berghain will feature psychedelic house and an "acid workout" in the Panorama Bar. I f you ...

Credits as per photo, via R19 Facebook page Club R19 is closing. Another phenomenon of the Berlin party scene is vanishing, leaving us grappling to describe exactly what it is.  Or w as .    The problem with R19 is setting yourself apart from whatever is happening there for long enough to describe it.  Stop for a second and someone / something will grab you and drag you along for a ride. Usually, I just show the place to people and let them decide what they t hink it is .  Their reactions vary from wowed to wary but they're u sually closer to the 'wow' end of the spectrum . I’m a big believer in taking party photos ( taken responsibly and with permission ) but I’ve never had time to think about taking a pic in R19 .  T ime or space.  Anything that you do that isn't part of the present seems to leave a palpable vacuum that the people around you pick up on, zero in on a nd try to fi ll ....

As published in Siegesauele, May 2015 edition. May 1st is a time when the spirit of change grabs us. Across Europe, people used to celebrate the day by lighting bonfires to magnify the sun’s life force. From Beltane to Walpurgisnacht, modern versions of these same celebrations embody a pre-Christian tradition of burning out the old, bad energies of winter to make way for new ones in spring. As manmade systems slowly replaced nature as the governing force in our lives, these too were added to the list of things that people yearn to regenerate. Eventually, May 1st was even chosen as International Workers’ Day to symbolize the ongoing struggle for equality between the haves and the have-nots.   That may be why authorities tend to pour cold water on the May Day spirit: they’re afraid that they may get chucked on the fire to make way for something new. That seems to be what happened in Berlin on May 1, 1987 when police brutally clamped down on a pea...

The adjective "overrated" is often used in relation to Berlin's clubs, especially during the tourist high season . It' s the time of year when do zens of pop -up parties suddenly appear, run by peo ple who are in it for nothing but quick cash, an ego injection or the c hance to play God for a while .   To illust rate, I'm republishing this early party report written about an openair party I went to in Apri l 2011.  T he party happened on the site where Kosmonaut club now stands but it was under different management then , so any resemblance between th e old club and th e new one is purely coincidental.  B e warned: this review is so bad that it's almost good agai n (i f you know what I mean). Please don't bother reading past this point if you dis like that sort of thing !

"Time To Dance" paste-up by SOBR, Berlin. "We are not going to demand anything. We are not going to ask for anything. We are going to take. We are going to occupy." Reclaim the Streets manifesto ( Do Or Die ) Here in Berlin, it's always "Time to Dance"... even if you're just waiting at the tram stop at 8:00 a.m. on a Monday morning, and even if you're eyeing your bank account's minus-balance on a graffiti-covered cash machine screen at midnight.  After all, just because the party's ended doesn't mean your buzz has to. The season when it becomes most evident that the beat never stops in Berlin is in the summer, when a series of street parties and festivals acts the main stage, turning the swollen ranks of the clubbing network into mere after-party and pre-party stop-offs on the way back to the great urban outdoors.    And now that we've gotten past the most over-hyped outdoor parade of the year (not naming any names h...