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Music

Mythbusting Berghain at the Pop Kultur Festival

Secrecy, sensation, and "Strings of Life".

This weekend past, THUMP were lucky enough to do something that not everyone gets to do: we managed to waltz into the world famous Berghain three nights on the bounce without even being so much as looked at by the infamous crack squad of bully boy bouncers. For three nights we stood slack-jawed in awe in the Panorama Bar, secreting ourselves into nooks and crannies, ambling from room to room with an endless supply of beers in our hands. How had we made the impossible possible? Easy.We went to the Pop Kultur festival.

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This was the festival's first run out and it was evident that it'd been planned with meticulous precision. Consisting of a series of talks, gigs, and DJ sets — a smorgasbord of top tier entertainment — spaced out over three evenings, it felt intentionally loose, intentionally meandering. One could hop from Viv Albertine in conversation to Nenah Cherry jamming with Rocketnumbernine to Juan Maclean hammering the Panorama bar for hours.

The Juan Maclean's Nancy Whang at Berghain (all photos by Tonje Thilesen)

Highlights included a stratospherically good live set from Juan and his band — a 25 minute version of "Happy House" was something we'll never forget — a characteristically genre-defying set from Trilogy Tapes boss Will Bankhead, a high energy blast courtesy of Manchester crew Levelz, and a euphoric closing set at Panorama from former Hacienda resident Dave Haslam who dropped "Strings of Life" at just the right moment and sent the place absolutely fucking WILD. In short, we had a blast.

We Talked to the guy offering a 100 euro bribe to get past Sven

What we were there for really, though, was the chance to bust a few myths about a club that's become arguably the most important in the world right now but has remained cloaked in mystery. Operating a strict no photos policy, the Berghain is something we've either experienced or heard a hell of a lot about. Being the intrepid journalists we are, THUMP decided to don our metaphorical hard hats and safety goggles and get the low down on the real deal.

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Dave Haslam at Panorama Bar

MYTH: The Berghain is a dark and dirty fuckfest where every corner reveals sexual excess of bacchanalian proportions.

REALITY: We didn't see anyone shagging, sadly. Given that Pop Kultur was a curated festival rather than a full on, regular night down everyone's favourite former power station, it's not surprising that the fisting and leather we'd heard so much about was replaced by beards and wristbands. We don't think we even saw anyone snogging. We did catch ourselves at one point, surrounded by some very sweaty topless lads on a podium of sorts, though.

STATUS: Busted. Kind of.

MYTH: Getting into Berghain is really, really, really hard and there are a tonne of secret things to remember to ensure the best possible chances of gaining entry to the 'ghain.

REALITY: Gold wristbands meant we were straight in.

STATUS: BUSTED!

MYTH: Berghain and Panorma Bar are probably the best clubs in the world.

REALITY: We're delighted to announce that they lived up to all expectations. Dark, dank sweatboxes that are free of gimmicks and ornaments, both rooms, both spaces, both clubs are testaments to the eternal power of pleasure found in rooms stuffed with people and massive soundsystems. We can't think of many better places to spend a day and night basking in the glow of club culture.

STATUS: Confirmed.

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