New Years Eve 2007 in Berlin

New Years Eve 2007 in Berlin

27 December, 2007 | 3.31AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Berlin
• Written by: Ben Raven

Where will you ring in the New Year?

If you’re in Berlin, make sure you’re not in a club.

Don’t worry, we’re not getting all grown up and serious on you.

In the city of never ending afterparties its only right that the real New Year’s raving gets done on January 1st not December 31st.

Berlin - the winter Ibiza?

This year’s rundown of partying options is biased towards those who are in it for the long haul.

Besides, clogging up the clubs early doors, as Berlin veterans will snoot, is only for the tourists.

This New Year’s Eve the city is bracing itself for even more city break ravers than ever.

This blogger alone has been inundated with requests to sort out tickets (one desperate connection wanted me to buy forty tickets for him despite the fact I’ve only met the guy at a few afterparties).

I know three different friends (with three different social circles coming with them) traveling from England alone (that’s a lot of guest list requests).

Factor in the countless other similar expeditions from countries like Italy, the US, Ireland, and Spain currently being planned, and you’ll understand why Berliners are beginning to feel like their nightlife is being robbed from under them.

Berlin you see is in an interesting little fix.

Its tag as the world’s raving capital means its become something of a wintertime Ibiza.

Every Monday morning the Easyjet and Ryanair flights are clogged with returning weekend rave tourists.

The language dominating the air space in club queues is less likely to be German and the dancefloors are rammed to the cloak rooms with cosmopolitan party specialists.

Sounds amazing, you might think but not all of the clubs see it that way.

Hang around the queue for the Panorama Bar/Berghain on a Sunday morning and you’ll notice a never-ending line of disgruntled foreigners trundling to the taxi queue after being told “not tonight.”

Such is the way of clubland that now the world is a smaller place thanks to low-cost airlines, the dancefloor feels a hell of a lot smaller too.

For Berlin, the perennial small town in a big city unused to all this attention from the hordes of visiting outsiders it seems to all be getting a little too much.

An English accent is more often than not ample excuse to be refused entry to a club and for the visitors the fear of the bouncers at Panorama is becoming greater than the fear of getting stopped by customs on the way back with something you shouldn’t have.

Clubs like Berghain want to prioritise their own Berliner crowd, an increasingly endangered species, while visiting ravers want simply to get into the clubs they’ve been hearing so much about after spending so much money and time making their way to the front of the queue.

Berlin’s Top New Year’s Parties: 2007/2008

Still feeling lucky? On what’s sure to be one of the cities biggest party nights there is a lot on but as is the usual for club nights at New Year’s its all about the residents.

Its lucky then that Berlin’s residents roster is star packed.

Watergate: MY My, Sebo K, Phage & Dreier and Mike Shannon head up the bill for a party at Watergate that should run all day on the 1st.

Berghain/Panorama: Berghain/Panoramabar’s lineup promises another marathon session with Marcel Dettman, Ben Klock, Andre Galluzi, Len Faki, Cassy, Margaret Dygas, Dinky and Prosumer leading the charge.

M-Nus/Bpitch @ Weekend: The hottest ticket is the Bpitch/M-Nus party at Weekend.

Ellen Alien’s stable of world class techno experimentalists takes over two floors of the Alexanderplatz building for the first half of the party while in the morning Richie Hawtin, Magda and Ricardo Villalobos play a daytime masterclass in after-hours perfection.

Lets just hope we all get in!

Tips for getting in

1. Go super early or super late.

2. Hitting the door of Berghain at 4am is a recipe for a long night’s queuing followed by a short walk to the cab rank.

3. Don’t blab your accent too loudly.

4. Keep your mouth shut until you’re spoken to and its odds on the doorstaff will think you’re a local. Shout your head off on a mobile to your mates back home in Brum and you won’t have it so easy.

5.Dress to impress: Berlin is a stylish city so look the part.

Girls that doesn’t necessarily mean high heels and skirts, just look like you have a personality.

Guys if you look like you’re still out from an office works do or you’re queuing for the Ministry of Sound then prepare for a night at the hostel bar - ie: try not to look like these lot.

• (2) Comments
• (425) Views