How is the club scene doing after two years of Corona?
Berlin. There’s music in the air as the line slowly grows outside the Void Club. It’s not midnight yet, but the bass from the club in Berlin’s Rummelsburg district is already penetrating the outside world. The first party people meet in front of the site, chat, sit on the curb, make plans for the night.
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Joris and John are standing across the street. Before the corona pandemic, John says he often went to parties. Then, when he just turned 18, came the restrictions. “If everything opens again now, there is an urge to catch up on a lot of things,” he says. “But of course there is also caution.”
Joris agrees – and talks about private celebrations where a consensus of consideration has become established. The two young Berliners don’t want to think about the fact that the summer will end at some point and the corona numbers are already rising again. “I tune it out,” says John.
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Berlin has not forgotten how to party
Inside the club, the dancing bodies twitch to electric music. If you didn’t know that the capital’s clubs were closed and reopened, that rules like 2G+ were introduced and then abolished again, that nightlife had come to a standstill at times, you wouldn’t notice. The party goes on. Nobody wears a mask, nor is it mandatory. The distances between the dancers are still large, but the night is still young.
The party capital of Berlin, it seems on this summer evening, hasn’t forgotten how. On the Spree you can hear drum music, on a street corner a musician is singing his best song, in the clubs the DJs are warming up. The city can once again do what it is famous for: it sings, it dances, it vibrates.
staff is migrated
And yet not everything is as it used to be. The clubs are struggling with rising prices, a lack of staff, and supply problems for technology and tequila. 1.5 million people, from bouncers to barmaids to stage builders, have left the catering and events industry, with the latter accounting for 40 percent of those who benefit. Many who have been there for a long time have exchanged the night for the day and now earn their money in retail with closing time at middle-class hours and free evenings with the family.
Newcomers can choose the bars and clubs and set conditions: In the meantime, counter staff sometimes want to put in a second trial shift of their own accord – to see that the place really suits them. You had other options.
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And revelers have become choosier, too. Robin Schellenberg has a good insight into this. He is co-founder and operator of the Klunkerkranich on the roof of a shopping center in Neukölln, he also DJs and sits on the board of the Clubcommission, the lobby association for the Berlin night. The Wattled Crane is doing well again, he says: On the weekends, clubbers sometimes queue for two hours at his place. Elsewhere there is much less going on.
Fewer foreign party tourists in Berlin
The party hopping is over, also because of the sharp increase in admission prices. Admission of up to 70 euros is requested – that was unthinkable in Berlin for a long time. “People leave super spontaneously and decide on a club in the evening,” reported Schellenberg. Fewer DJs are booked who play longer sets. Some are brand new to the industry – they made names for themselves on social media during the Corona years and are now putting on a sudden one in Berghain. The party foreign tourists are coming back, but they shape the night less than before the pandemic.
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But the Berlin night still made another promise: that it was there for everyone, that the clubs offer safe spaces, i.e. shelters, for every lifestyle and celebration style, that a tight budget (not everywhere) is a reason for exclusion . That has changed: Anyone who is now back in business has to earn money.
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Corona summer wave creates risk
The summer isn’t really carefree either. In addition, there is the Corona summer wave: It makes you feel bad in the back of your mind – and is a risk that many have taken. The disco balls stood still for too long. And who knows what fall WILL bring.
Burkhard Kieker also observes the urge to catch up. “People have learned not to postpone anything anymore,” says the managing director of the Visit Berlin tourism agency. “The mentality is to live now.” And he knows what he’s talking about: the pandemic years have had a noticeable impact on tourism in the capital.
August 2021: Club guests queue up to take part in a pilot project to celebrate under Corona conditions.
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The “big steamer Berlin”, to use Kieker’s words, was stranded. While 34 million overnight stays were counted in 2019, in 2020 it was just 12 million. A year later, the number climbed laboriously to 14 million. The first data is also available for 2022: from January to April, around 5.9 million overnight stays were recorded in the capital.
2000 events in Berlin every day
But now it’s time to start again: The big steamer Berlin, says Kieker, is moving again. He expects that culture and tourism, which are among the “most important economic factors” in Berlin, will have recovered by 2023 or announced in 2024 so that they will reach the pre-crisis level. Before the pandemic, there were 2,000 to 3,000 events in Berlin – every day. “Starting with the symphony and tango in the backyard,” explains Kieker in an interview with the editorial network Germany (RND).
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And the numbers are approaching this level again: there are currently around 2,000 events a day, he says. Of course, Berlin benefits from the summer weather: the warm temperatures lure visitors to open-air concerts, to the beer gardens and to the city’s roof terraces.
And life goes on inside, too: Since the Berlin Senate lifted the obligation to wear masks and other corona restrictions in spring, numerous party-goers have been pouring into the city’s clubs and bars again. This includes tourists, of course: around 15 percent of visitors to Berlin would travel to the capital because of the clubs and nightlife, says Kieker.
“But these are people who of course also do other things.” But there are also noticeable changes in tourism: Currently, Kieker explains, 65 percent of visitors come from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The remaining 35 percent are from other countries. “It used to be 50/50,” he says. When it comes to foreign countries, European countries such as Spain, but also the USA, are strongly represented.
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Clubs have to line up for the fall
And they also come to turn night into day in Berlin’s clubs. Berghain, Wattled Crane, Kater Blau: “The club culture is still a very strong magnet,” says Kieker. They have the same appeal and are as interesting and diverse as before the pandemic. However, no one knows what autumn WILL look like. “There is a great deal of uncertainty there,” sums up Kieker, who himself speaks of a “crystal ball” when it comes to future prospects. However, there is one thing he definitely wants to avoid: “What shouldn’t happen anymore is a lockdown.”
Two swords of Damocles are hanging over the clubs these months: the fear of reclaiming granted corona aid and the uncertain prospect of the colder season. The club commission in the corona pandemic has called for a long-term solution to prevent closures in the event of new waves. The solutions for the fall are there, said chairwoman Pamela Schobeß. “However, if you think that you only rely on distance and masks in the cultural sector, you will also accept closures again. That would be frivolous and a catastrophe for the Berlin venues.”
Club commission refers to pilot project
According to Schobess, good ventilation systems and PCR tests offer security. The club commission referred to various tests with PCR tests and optimized ventilation. The pilot project was very successful.
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In the first few weeks of opening in March, 2G or 2G-plus regulations still applied, until then all the rules apply and are currently only a faint memory. But the test and vaccination certificates could be queried again without any problems. “Before the shops are closed again, there should be a test strategy again,” demands Robin Schellenberg. In a nutshell, he adds: “It’s better that way than too.”
But for now the party goes on, no doubt about it. Even in the Void Club, it seems as if there was never a ban on dancing. The music is shrill, the revelers dance as if nothing had ever happened. It seems a long way off here that autumn will come after summer, and with it perhaps more restrictions. Berlin has warmed up again. And summer has only just begun.