Most Mannheim locals will gladly tell you that the best thing about the city is that Frankfurt isn't that far away. I think that's one of the major reasons that Time Warp works so well. The overwhelming majority of the 15,000 attendees come to Mannheim to rave. And they come from all over. On the tram we took over to the event, I heard French, Spanish, German, English and hilarious combinations of all four. The most frequent question of the night? "Where are you from?"
Photo credit: Sophia Spring
I'm from America, and it's hard to imagine an electronic music festival so singularly-minded ever working on such a large-scale. Techno was the order of the day throughout all five stages of the massive Maimarkthalle complex. (Even Seth Troxler and Henrik Schwarz played relatively harder than I expected, no doubt aware that they were playing in front of Magda and Richie Hawtin, respectively.) Yet each room had a unique character. Floor 1 was hard-edged all night, typified by Len Faki setting things off with a siren and hardly letting up after that before Chris Liebing closed the room out with industrial-sized and -sounding techno.
Photo credit: Sophia Spring
Floor 2, meanwhile, was the domain of Sven and Richie for a whopping ten hours in total. I didn't catch Hawtin, but Vath's predictably effusive set (playing an imaginary trumpet to Stefan Goldmann's "The Maze," flexing his muscles, etc.) was capped by a full-screen tribute to Japan. The aforementioned Henrik Schwarz took over after him, and was one of the highlights of the night, playing a faster version of his well-known jazz-infused house. It took on a techno tinge in places, and was all the better for it.
Photo credit: Sophia Spring
Laurent Garnier's LBS show was also excellent, keeping the obviously too small Floor 5 bursting at the seams for much of their five-and-a-half hour set. A striking contrast to Luciano and Carl Craig's rolling techno extravaganza in which the clockwork cutting of the bass became almost cliché by the end of their four hours together, Garnier's crew seemed to have higher highs and lower lows.
Photo credit: Sophia Spring
Then again, I may have just missed the best bits of Luciano and Carl Craig and the worst bits of Laurent Garnier. The thing with Time Warp is that there's an absolute embarrassment of riches on offer, and by a certain time of night, it's all clashing. Try choosing between Len Faki, Sven Vath, Luciano and Carl Craig, Magda and Laurent Garnier, and you'll inevitably miss something great. Go to Time Warp, and you'll likely hear something great no matter which room you choose. Mannheim may not be a massive cultural hub, but for one night, it feels like the center of the techno universe.
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