the L♡VE is back

Image taken from: http://austria.partysan.net/

The Love Parade has been called the world’s largest electro dance party and it’s back in Berlin! It started in West Berlin in 1989 just four months before the Berlin Wall collapsed as a demonstration for peace, tolerance and understanding through love and music.

It started on the first July weekend
participants: 150
Location: Berlin
route: Kurfürstendamm
motto: peace, joy and pancakes
cars: 1

The Love Parade in 1991 was considered the first nationwide meeting of the various national techno scenes. First scene activists traveled from various cities to Berlin to present their regional techno-culture, whereby first a nation-wide networks and exchange of young techno culture came about.

Image taken from: http://www.carnaval2010.org/

Internationally, similar Love Parades have taken place in Zurich, San Francisco, Mexico City, Acapulco, Vienna, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Sydney, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Oslo and Budapest. Loveparade took a place in Berlin until 2006, then it was moved to other different locations. In 2010 19 people were stepped to death and 342 others were injured.

The Love Parade usually started about 2pm, going on to the evening and then splitting into innumerable afterparties at night as the whole city was transformed into a vast club. At its peak the Parade featured fifty gigantic trucks where up to 250 DJs would blast out house and techno to the expectant revellers. Two common tactics for enjoying the day were to either walk beside a certain truck that you liked the sound of, or to stay still and soak up the different vibes of each van and its followers.

The Love Parade is a symbol for fundamental self expression and in this event people are free to do just about anything they want to- sitting and dancing on streetlamps, trees, commercial signs and telephone booths. Hence, the Parade is often referred to as ”the greatest amateur circus on earth”. People travel from neighbouring countries to take part in the freaky Love Parade and have a crazy time being all by themselves!

Image taken from: http://www.abigcitydied.com/

Image taken from: http://www.spiegel.de/

Image taken from: http://www.welt.de/

With 1,6 million attendees it is hard to control anything, but the festival is about dance not about death. Coming back to Berlin this year, the festival is especially waited, hopefully it only sees : love and dance. Art makes love, love makes Berlin.

LOVEPARADE 21. July, 2012

http://loveparade.techno.de/

Info is taken from Los Angeles Times and Telegraph

http://www.journeymart.com/

http://loveparade.techno.de/

Pussy Riot bleibt!

Mayday. Skalitzerstr. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

It seems that Berliners make the loudest Mayday in comparison to other countries.

The entire Skalitzerstr. gets blocked from the public transport, only yellow carriages keep running above. Thousands of people fill in the streets around Kotti to see the demonstration, eat and drink, but the most importantly to enjoy the endless amount of stages and bars with loud music. Oranienstr. gets the priority for the main stages, and is busy as hell, people constantly move backs and forward, and dancing seems almost impossible. The food is twice more expensive, and the beer sold by Turks is not only expensive but also is being poured to a small plastic glass, which means you only get a HALF of the bottle. Of course, it is YOUR fault you did not buy a box of beer the day before.

I should admit this is a very tiring process, trying to find a stage with the music you like and where there is not so packed. All in all I was upset with the Oranienstr. stages, even though they were offering everything from African drums to hard core, it mostly was just boring. The only stage which I enjoyed for some sort of originality was “the support of Pussy Riot” (Pussy Riot is the Russian punk group which is currently in prison for singing the indecent song in the church). Both DJs were wearing a soviet t-shirt with the knitted masks the girls from the band normally wear.

I think Skalitzerstr. totally rocked with its open bars, bringing much better tunes to all electronic and hip-hop lovers. And the beauty moment came when the sky got really dark,but the sun stayed anyway.. and then it started raining… With +27 it felt extremely good. Police was boiling in their costumes and mutant boots, while Gorlitzer park was lying on the grass enjoying the grass.

I ended my Mayday on Weserstr. with bearded Dans – Analogik who were sharing some good vodka with the audience. Hell yeah, gypsy tronica makes you really move! Great gnomes and atmos!

Massy Kotti. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

The Banks are hiding. All right reserved by Katja Avant Hard.

Luzia stage. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

Sitting in the window. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

Pussy Riot bleibt! All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

The sky. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

Standing. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

I am only happy when it rains! All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

KJOSK party. Nice hip hop beats! All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

Angry Chicken party. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

Am Weserstr. All rights reserved by Katja Avant Hard

Berliners make the bridge bounce

Image taken from http://home.arcor.de

Modersohnbrücke is located between the two big S-bahn stations: Warschauer str. and Ostkreuz. It is a nice bridge for sunsets, with a beautiful view on passing by trains.

Once a year Berliners organise a dance party right on the bridge, with music, confeti and a lot of beer. The greatest part is that when so many people dance, the bridge bounces!! Up and down! And it felt as if you were on a ship in the sea. And the passing underneath s-bahn was happy enough to beep at us, and the crowd went “woooo”. At one point somebody managed to get on the top of the bridge and walk along the metal beams!

“It gets extreme when you get with me you know what I mean”

Amazing electronic tunes and the pink sky last night was a peaceful Sunday evening and everyone was singing along “And the sun goes down”.… A true experience with the moving bridge could never happen in my beautiful Riga or rushy London (Copenhagen could do it) just because these two cities are not ready for parties like this and for different reasons.

Of course even here the police controls everything and at 22:30 shortly after a hot tune “I’m hungry for the power” the cops move us down the bridge to Friedrichshain.

Image by Julia Mari Bernaus

Image by By 5 Minutes Away

Image taken from http://www.n-tv.de/

And that’s the only ok older video I found which shows how it all looks like:

Erster Mai in Kreuzberg

Image by `coxi

Some people consider the 1st of May to be the most exciting day in Berlin. International Worker’s day is the day free of work, it is the day for protests, parades and demonstations. It is both fun and dangerous. It is a big feast with DJs and bands, it is a bottle paradise for collectors and it is simply fucking busy Kreuzberg.

Yesterday Berlin was celebrating the liberation of Neukoelln in 1945 at Hermannstr. all the way down to Hermannplatz, with music, monologues and free drinks. And so the party continues until the Mayday comes.

Image by Crazy Ivory

Every year Berliners gather at Kotti around 12 and make a revolution happen.

This Year will not be different.

There will be stage Luzia (a nice bar by the way) which starts at 13:00 on Oranienstr. 34 with food, drinks and music.

Join: https://www.facebook.com/events/221643411278197/

Of course, this is also a massive techno/electro party in Görlitzer Park, and since it is going to be sunny and +24 on May 1st, this means there will be no free spot before the sun goes down!

Atari Teenage Riot!

Get the info here  about the 2012 plans: http://erstermai.nostate.net/web/

And there is a blog for you to follow and get updated: http://revolte.blogsport.eu/

This is going to be my 1st Mayday in Berlin…

And there is also Analogik ( Danish Gypsy-tronica) performing at Fuchs und Elster!!!! Not sure about the ticket price though.

For a global social revolution!
May 1st- 6 PM- Lausitzer Platz, Berlin-Kreuzberg

A coalition of anti-capitalist and radical left groups calls for the revolutionary Mayday demonstration on the international day of struggle by the working class in the boroughs of Kreuzberg and Mitte. For 25 years this day symbolises a radical objection and a confrontive criticism of state’s power in Berlin Kreuzberg. Despite police terror and baiting by the media thousands of people gather on Mayday every year to demand an existance beyond capitalism. Militant confrontations with police have been occurring regulary in the past.

The Mayday demonstration 2012 starts at Lausitzer Platz in Berlin-Kreuzberg. This was the site where the tradition of revolutionary Mayday demonstrations in Berlin startetd in 1987, when police attacked an alternative street party and provoked riots. At 6pm there will be concert with several bands and political statements. After that thousands of people from different movements and countries will march from Kreuzberg to Mitte.

No time for century decay. I declare party – Berlin 2012

CTM.12 SPECTRAL

    I dig digital distortion. I glitch my art, I fart bits. What am I? 8 times i bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

█᷄᷄᷄ ̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋ ̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏._
█
█ ̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋̋ ̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏̏…

I speak no words here, i only use ones and zeros.

All I can hear is noise. I like it because i am a child of digi-topia.

Living in the digital world of disinformation (too many sources to suck from) the digital zone of comfort has fucked us all nicely, it MADE US TOUCH it THROUGH THE SCREEN. 

The futurists knew the machine will bring the beauty. The beauty of noise and feeling. We will feel the machine. It will contract our brain to 8-bit size, as the machine will think instead of us.

I touch my reality through the screen

̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿L͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿I͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿

̿T͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿

̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿C͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿H͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇

͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿R͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇͇̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿

 

 

The beginning of new year Berlin looks and sounds extremely loud:  Fashion Week, TRANSMEDIALE, CTM, BERLINALE.

Berlin certainly is all about fashion and design. Most of the people who come here, come to create their own style and ego. Fashion does not limit them in terms of size, material or concept. Berlin Fashion week is made to surprise(?), inspire(?) and spend big money.

For Fashion Week Order click here: http://www.fashion-week-berlin.com/en/about/

Dawid Tomaszewski collection

All rights reserved by MBFWBerlin

When Fashion takes a break it is time for TRANSMEDIALE AND CTM.

CTM is a prominent international festival dedicated to contemporary electronic, digital and experimental music, as well as the diverse range of artistic activities in the context of sound and club culture. Since 1999 it takes place concurrently and cooperatively with the transmediale – international festival for art and digital culture, Berlin. Transmediale engages in reflective, aesthetic and speculative positions in between art, technology and culture (transmediale was founded in 1988 as VideoFilmFest, a side-project of the Berlin Berlinale’s ‘International Forum of New Cinema’.)

We cannot deny digital world, it is far more important than fashion, even though fashion is a part of digital world anyway. We are all part of the digital world. All we hear, see and feel is fully or partly digital. It is not much left from the reality when we were real. Sub-real, neo-real, cyber-real whatever you call it we smell like machine even when we are dead.

In a simple language. Transmediale explores various modern technology topics and CTM sings about them.

SPECTRAL

// Festival theme

A reversal is taking place on the fringes of today’s pop culture: drag, witch house, hypnagogic pop, hauntology, analog synthesizer music, neo-industrial, and drone music all focus on the energy of negativity and unconsciousness. Throughout these various styles one explores revisitations of past music and media and their unfulfilled utopias and dystopias, conjures eerie presences that rise from the deep material structures, and rejects the state of lively present with bitterness, euphoria or everything in between. Deceleration, decay, fumigation, noise, deformation, liquefaction, mystery, nostalgia, kitsch, emptiness, loss, withdrawal, the longing for transcendence, mundane alchemy, and xeno-communications are the buzzwords of an aesthetic that counters the relentlessness of hyper-capitalist production and its incessant demand for positive engagement. Parallels can be drawn to current protest movements, from Occupy Wall Street to Anonymous.

For CTM gigs and vanues check this: http://www.ctm-festival.de/about/ctm.html

For TRANSMEDIALE: http://www.transmediale.de/info

The list of clubs you can check before you start your disco trans http://www.ctm-festival.de/ctm-festival/info/venues.html

Inhalt von Jonathan Gröger

Inhalt von Jonathan Gröger steht unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Keine Bearbeitung 3.0 Deutschland Lizenz.

 

Breathe in and get ready for Berlinale! February the 9th until 19th! Of course this is big and scary, and you might want to wear a suit.

Have a look here: http://www.berlinale.de/de/HomePage.html

 

Hope you are seriously distorted and disordered by your machine and the noise it makes
here you are, have some more

Be a big boy

I am so electronic I shit bits! I am so trashy I eat Peaches!

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

Last night White Trash Club, dark and claustrophobic, has welcomed Peaches and her burlesque dancers. When it comes to Peaches – there is always a show. This time it was blood, strip, Barbie nipples and a lot of champagne. 

We came around 11, and it is too early for Berlin. You can chill, smoke outside enjoy the fresh air, drink wine around the corner or stay inside and dance for 2 hours. People seemed to be dressed rather casual, no special costumes or extravagant make ups. The DJ before Peaches was running a rather strange mix of songs – some good old Joy Division, Nirvana then modern indie and some MTV pop. The crowd nicely warmed up and terribly drunk at 1am was more than ready for Peaches. She did not make wait long. I raised my arms and they met the ceiling. The club was not small, but located under the ground and above felt like Pans’ Labyrinth. 

She made it loud, long and wet. Four or five bottles of champagne made the 1st rows sticky and happy. The two dancers entertained the crowd with changing their costumes every 10 minutes, starting as elegantly dressed pilots with cigarettes in silver lips, finishing with stripping and flashing their arses in g-strings and pale topless bodies. Vampiric eyes were drilling the crowd, their robotic movements and skinny bodies fit well the DJ-set, which of course was less exciting than her individual shows where she uses fat dancers with wicked tatoos. But it is still Peaches – expressive, sexy, crowd loving and just a cool chick. She played a mix of her songs which worked the best and some techno club mixes which made the crowd move for 2h non stop, 3am she left the stage and White Trash is ready for a big glass of beer.

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

by Avant Hard all rights reserved

BIRTHDAY BLITZ 11.11.11. – the day of the year

               BIRTHDAY BLITZ might be the party where you can see how Berlin parties for real!

This is something mysterious, sexy, very bright and glittery. Smashing costumes, crazy hairstyles, electronic music AND HOURS of QUEUEING..

Click HERE to be one of 362 attendes with no guarantee you are in.

PICTURES from previous BLITZ PARTIES: flickr

Move like a motherfucker!