Wormsie

09-06-2009

Berghain: the best party in Berlin

Overall: 5.0 / 5.0

Berghain is the best party I've ever been to in my life, period. It's in an old power plant in former East Berlin so just the building itself is a fantastic location. The music consists of the latest and best techno.

The place has four (or five? can't remember clearly now) floors and an outdoor garden that is open if the weather is good. The lowest floor contains a bar, a few sofas (if you can call huge concrete blocks that...) and a dark maze where you can get acquainted with all the hot guys. (The place apparently has a liberal attitude on sex, I was told that some people even have sex out in the open, but I didn't witness any of this.) The second two floors contain a bar and a dancefloor each (some people prefer one dancefloor to the other, but I liked both). There's a nice ice cream bar in the topmost floor where you can also buy sandwiches and bananas. :)

I went there on a Saturday: it was quite a mixed crowd, consisting of techno lovers, gay and straight. The place still IS a gay party, and didn't feel at all like a "gay party taken over by straight people". The men there ranged from cute 20+ guys to 40+ hairy muscle leather bears, skins and other fetish guys and blokes. I don't think I paid much attention to what the women looked like. ;)

The door control is rather strict, as they want to keep the party "local" and weed out straight tourists  (who might not even know that they are going to a gay place) and people who are stereoptypically thought to cause trouble in Berlin, such as groups of British and American tourists. So speak German! When I didn't understand what the guy at the door was saying he kept shouting "Sprichst du Deutsch?! Wirklich?!" to me... which was rather unpleasant, but hey, you're in Berlin so you should be prepared for such treatment anyway and not let it ruin your evening!

The party starts at midnight and keeps going until Sunday afternoon. I definitely recommend going there early to avoid the queues. While waiting for the place to liven up, you can relax and enjoy the music and be glad you got in.

If you go to lab.oratory (the basement sex club in the same place as Berghain) you can skip the queue to Berghain.

Comments (1)

Wormsie 10-09-2009

One more comment: the people there seemed to be mostly civilised and good-natured and out there to have a good time and dance and cruise, not to "see and to be seen". No staring, pushing or other kinds of rude behaviour. It is an expensive club, though: a bottle of water costs 3 euros.

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