Berlin BerMuDa Weekend – Day 2

With our ears still ringing from the awesome sounds of Berghain the night before and not feeling particularly well rested, we decided to go and have some food on the Saturday in the mid afternoon in order to refuel, before getting ready for the Berlin Music Days (BerMuDa) festival that evening. Some of the group who had made it all the way through til 3pm the night before were still in a deep slumber, so we decided to let them get some much needed rest, and six of us headed off in search of some decent food and recap on all the stories from the previous night.

We found a restaurant about a ten minute walk away from the hostel and sat down, ordering a round of double Jagermeister shots before we started to choose our food. Perhaps the combination of that and the large beer we chased it down with, added to the fact that none of us had eaten anything since the day before, meant that the spaghetti bolognese I ordered was probably the best plate of pasta I’ve ever eaten. It was all a bit too much for one of the six of us who hadn’t had much sleep at all and he spent the meal passed out next to his lasagna. We couldn’t resist an opportunity to play a game of buckaroo on him (if you aren’t familiar with this game it basically involves piling items from the table on top of someone until they wake and ‘buckaroo’ everything off), which the table of Germans next to us were only too happy to join in on.

Childish games over, and fully refueled, it was time to head back to the hostel, after a quick stop at the local off license, and begin the process of preparing for the night. We had the whole group of 21 of us in our room, tunes blasting from some speakers, drinking games in full swing, and bar one small mishap involving one or two people being a little too drunk, the pre party had an excellent vibe, and 10pm  rolled around and it was time to head off. Unlike the night before, I was familiar with several of the acts who were scheduled to play and more than a little excited about a few of them.

Very much unlike Berghain there was no strict door policy and therefore nothing to worry about. It was going to be a much more relaxed vibe than the night before, but also with some pretty special music. Some of the DJs currently live in Berlin, and there is always something exciting about seeing a DJ in their home town.

We got taxis to Tempelhof Airport which is where the event was being held, and it was only a ten minute journey. The venue is now a disused airport I should add, and there is very little more than a big warehouse space inside that would give any indication of it’s previous purpose.

After checking our jackets into some overpriced (6 euros with a 5 euro deposit) lockers, we went to check out the layout of the venue which was split into two hangars. The sound systems were impressive with towers of speakers providing ample amounts of bass and volume.

Due to a complete mix up with which hangar was which, I managed to foolishly miss Booka Shade playing live, who I absolutely love, but can’t really complain as I realised after about an hour I was listening to Tiefschwarz who were also excellent. An appropriate set for the time of the night which was still in its infant stages, but by no means anything overly memorable. When the time came for Sven Vath to take over the other hangar a few of us wondered through and made our way as far forward as possible. Sven is one of my favourite DJs on the Cocoon label, he doesn’t ever disappoint and I only find myself liking his adventurous and powerful sets more and more each time I see him. This night was no exception and I only managed to peel myself away, with great difficulty, after I received a message from the other group who were back in the other hangar where Sebo K was now playing after they sent me a text saying “please please please come to the other hangar for Sebo K, it’s absolutely next level and we’re all together”, I couldn’t really refuse!

After Sebo K it was time for something extremely special and potentially the most memorable set of the weekend. Henrik Schwarz, Dixon and Ame were playing a three hour set and having seen Dixon and Ame play at the Fabric birthday a couple of weeks before, I was fully prepared to be blown away. Even with that in mind, I had underestimated what was about to happen. It was a set that was very much to my taste, they kept it fun and playful throughout, and the whole set seemed to be one big build up with hundreds of mini build ups along the way. Each drop had a real kick to it and it was impossible to predict what was coming next. The trio appeared to feed so well off each other, and the crowd definitely seemed to be getting everything they wanted. The energy was incredible. Their music combined with having the whole group together created an infectious feeling of satisfaction that the weekend had been such a success, a perfect mix of some of my best old friends and a fantastic bunch of relatively new ones. It’s what these weekends and raving adventures are all about, and I don’t think we’ve ever got the recipe as absolutely spot on as we did this time. It seemed like the perfect time to take a short video of what was probably my favourite tune of the weekend:

There wasn’t really any proper seating around the venue, I had this vision of there being seats from the original airport and other reminders of what the surroundings used to be. But people seemed to be content to rest their weary raving legs sitting on the floor around the walls so as the weekend finally started to take it’s toll, a few of us went to go chill just outside the arena we had been in, still well within earshot of the music though of course.

Although the festival was scheduled to continue through until about midday, my night came to an end as daylight started to appear. This did mean that I missed out on seeing Richie Hawtin but I will apologise to him when I next see him play, which is unlikely to be too far in the future. After a rather annoying walk away from the hoards of people trying to flag a cab, we managed to get one quite easily a couple of roads away where it was a lot quieter. I’m pretty sure the driver purposely took us on the ‘scenic route’ back to the hostel as we seemed to pay a lot more than on the journey there.

There had been talk of spending the final few hours of Sunday afternoon back at Berghain to really say goodbye to Berlin properly. After a little after party back in the room, this potential plan was plenty motivation to get a few hours sleep. It hard been hard to imagine any night even coming close to the magic of Berghain the night before but I have to admit, the BerMuDa Festival did one hell of a job of it. If the weekend had ended there it would still have been one of the best of all time…but there was still Sunday afternoon to come…

See you on the dancefloor