Art of Now: Berlin’s Nightlife

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Berlin’s Nightlife

BBC Radio 4 - Art of Now, Berlin’s Nightlife

DJ Emily Dust explores the unusual ways Berlin's clubbing scene is fighting gentrification

The future of Berlin's famous clubbing scene could depend on more collaboration and unity with the state, but can counter-culture survive?  DJ Emily Dust investigates.

DJ Emily Dust investigates where policy and parties meet, as clubs and politicians work together to try and save the scene.  

Berlin's famed nightlife brought in over €1.5bn to the city's economy in 2018.  Its clubbing scene is eclectic; every type of music, running over hours if not days and bringing millions of visitors each year.  At reggae club YAAM, general manager Geoffrey Vasseur describes a city at a crossroads; rising rents and gentrification forcing many venues to relocate or close.   

Their future could depend on more collaboration and unity with the state, but can counter-culture survive?  

In a former power station, Emily meets Dimitri Hegemann, owner of iconic techno club Tresor, and who now hopes to transport the best of Berlin's culture and creativity out into the provinces. 

Jimmy Bamba, resident DJ at 80s Berlin hotspot the Dschungel Club, talks to his son, Freak De l'Afrique and RISE DJ and Producer Aziz Sarr, about how the scene has changed over their generations and how the popularity of African music has grown.

Georg Kössler is the Green Party representative for club culture in Berlin's Parliament. Emily learns the challenges he faces convincing his peers and how he finds ways to quantify the cultural as well as economic value of nightclubs.   But not everyone wants to take money from the state.  Reclaim Club Culture tell Emily why for them, clubs are not just a cultural force, but a political one.  

Plus Pamela Schobess, Chair of the Berlin Club Commission, who is lobbying the state to grant clubs the same cultural status as opera houses and Luz Diaz, co-founder of queer femme and non-binary collective Room 4 Resistance, on the importance of experimentation in the club scene.  

Presenter: Emily Dust
Producer: Georgia Catt

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