RA News: NYE 2010 clubbing guide: Germany

Allow RA to guide you through the entire New Year's weekend.

If you've yet to make plans or are simply content to go with the flow, it helps to know what your options are this New Year's in Germany.

More seasoned clubbers will tell you that the days around New Year's Eve proper is the time to get your clubbing kicks. Overcrowding, inflated entrance prices and general over-excitement too often lead to an anti-climactic or aggravating night. That said, there are plenty of parties that look poised to disprove this theory on December 31st in Deutschland.

We will, however, begin our look at the festivities on Thursday, December 30th, and in Berlin in particular. After his January 1st appearance last year, Richie Hawtin will play NYE eve at Weekend this year, and will be joined by Poker Flat boss Steve Bug and Cocoon's Karotte. Over in Friedrichshain, Houseyou Im Lilawunderland at Suicide Circus will pushing local acts, with the cast list including Ruede Hagelstein, Cotumo and Britta Arnold. Tresor, meanwhile, will be warming up for the big event by bringing DFA's Shit Robot and Fist or Finger's jozif over to spin. Further south, Watergate have invited Matthias Tanzmann, Adam Marshall and Solomun to set the weekend's debauchery in motion.

And so to the big night. There's roughly a 50-50 split between clubs that will open pre- and post-midnight, so we'll firstly address those that fall into the earlier time framce. Fuck Me Now & Love Me Later will be linking up with Gruppenzwang at Muenze Berlin and have assembled a hefty line-up that includes Justin Martin, Stimming and Format B. Ritterstrasse spot Ritter Butzke will also be packing the artists in: among the 20-plus bookings for their party are Wareika, Matt John and Mark Henning. Perhaps your most traditional New Year's option will be Cookies (dressing up and champagne), with dOP and Soul Clap providing the no-doubt fitting soundtrack. Kalle Kuts and Daniel W.Best will be appearing as G.I. DISCO for their bash at Kreuzberg restaurant Kimchi Princess, while Tresor will welcome Redshape, Mark Broom and Mike Dehnert. And if you want perhaps the city's best view of the clock striking midnight, get yourself to Weekend. Onur Ozer, Tobi Neumann and Dorian Paic will be spinning 12 floors up.

Chief among the venues throwing open their doors as of 01.00am that night will be Berghain, who by all accounts will be open non-stop until some point on Monday, January 3rd. All of the club's extremely capable residents will be getting behind the decks at some point and guests include Chris Liebing, Adam Beyer, Tom Clark and Dixon. An altogether shinier option is Tape club, who will once again host the fabulous Horse Meat Disco. And Watergate have bagged Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts, Exercise One and The Cheapers for their shindig.

Parties starting on the day/night of January 1st are a little bit thinner on the ground than you might expect, but among them you can catch Kaiserdisco and Ewan Pearson taking their place among a lengthy cast list at Arena; Jay Shepheard and Marc Schneider playing Suicide Circus; and Mathew Jonson setting up for a live show at Watergate.

The capital obviously takes the lion's share of the action in terms of New Year's bookings, but there's still plenty going on elsewhere in Germany come December 31st. The big two in Frankfurt “Cocoon and Robert Johnson“ have Sven Vath, Johannes Heil and Luke Solomon, and the Robert Johnson Allstars respectively. Over in Cologne, Gabriel Ananda and Rene Breitbarth will both be pushing their live acts as they headline at Artheater, and Fahrenheit Club will welcome Mobilee boss Anja Schneider. Munich's Harry Klein will split their efforts over the 31st and 1st: Johnny D plays the former, Adam Beyer the latter.