- The blowout this excellent Berlin club deserves.
- At around midday on Sunday, as I strolled the long path from Sonnenallee to Griessmuehle for possibly the last time, the only other people in sight were a middle-aged couple who seemed unlikely patrons for a 48-hour session. (Sure enough, when they reached the door, a bouncer muttered a few words in German and they turned on their heels.) The club's farewell party was, like my own day, barely two hours old. I wandered through the dystopian outdoor area, past the dishevelled basketball hoop and flameless fire-pit, expecting chilled tunes and sparse dance floors.
Instead, the place was rocking. In true Griessmuehle style, the previous night's CTM event had bled into Sunday morning, meaning Wintergarten, the scrappy wooden shed tacked onto the main building, was alive with well-oiled ravers and pumping house. A nervy peek into Silo, the club's subterranean bunker, suggested a similar, albeit more shadowy, scene. This was the club's goodbye note to its friends and family, namely the dozens of DJs and promoters who, until news broke of its inevitable closure, called it home. Each crew was given a two-hour slot, which meant regular switches in genre, a detail that could've derailed the vibe but actually kept things fun and fresh.
Across ten or so hours in Wintergarten, people flexed to loopy house (MELD), UK garage hits (Operate) and sleazy EBM and Italo (Idiothek). Techno, trance and ear-splitting gabber dominated once the sun went down. (At some point in the main room, one of the Tekknozid lads honestly played one of the most anxiety-inducing tunes I've ever heard—two of my friends scarpered in fear.) Come 5 PM, all three rooms, plus the toilets and numerous nooks and crannies, were rammed.
My time on Sunday—which, after I left, turned into Monday and even Tuesday—showed how beloved Griessmuehle is, not for any one DJ or party, but as a space. It's such a sick club with so many cool details. The walkway overlooking the main room. The tree-house, fire-pit and those random shacks. The Silo, arguably one of the best dance floors on the planet. Sitting by the canal on a summer's day without a care in the world. To lose all of this is a massive shame, a real blow to Berlin's nightlife. So, if you're going to Cocktail d'Amore this weekend for what will be the final-ever event at this wonderful Neukӧlln nightclub, make sure to savour it.