Live Review

Berlin Festival – Tempelhof Airport, Berlin

• 13th Sep 2010

This year’s Berlin festival boasted an impressive line-up, promising the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, Fatboy Slim and Fever Ray. But with the events of the Love Parade still fresh in Germany’s mind, fears of over-crowding meant that the weekend didn’t run quite as smoothly as planned…

After weeks of rain in Germany’s eclectic capital , we found ourselves bathed in September sunshine as we headed off to Tempelhof airport, a location which has hosted countless events and festivals since it officially closed in its airport capacity in 2007. An unusual, yet fitting festival site for a city known to be full of surprises.

First up for us were LCD Soundsystem who didn’t disappoint in the slightest, treating the crowd to a mixture of fan favourites and tracks from their new album, This Is Happening . Editors excited the audience with an impressive dose of pyrotechnics, but their set was slightly too predictable for a crowd who were clearly expecting a little more from the British band. Next it was off to check out Fever Ray in Hangar 4. Atmospheric, haunting, and perhaps just a little bit odd, the Knife singer appeared to be bathed in a hazy orange glow – a dark figure amongst a dozen vintage lampshades, like some kind of oriental living room.

Fever Ray had made me inexplicably hungry and so it was time to taste the various cuisines on offer. Unfortunately, my choice of a very spicy Jamaican curry nearly burnt my face off. In need of an instant distraction to my pain, I spotted some intriguing flashing boxes and a raving crowd out of the corner of my eye, and promptly ran off to join. It was Erol Alkan, notorious for getting kids dancing, and his tasty electro beats certainly got the crowd riled up (me included).

After a solid dancing session, and the unfortunate curry incident long forgotten, we wandered over to see Caribou, who proved to be one of the festival’s highlights. Caribou manage to effortlessly combine pounding drums, sensual vocals and hypnotic electronic loops with an industrial edge to create a sound which is refreshingly eclectic – a sound which certainly made an impression in Berlin this weekend.

All seemed to be going swimmingly at the festival, with smiling, happy hipsters to be found in every hangar. However, halfway through 2 Many Djs, “the situation changed at around 2.30am in front of the pass gates at Hangar-4 stage when a large number of festival goers backed up in front of it”. Organisers decided to cancel the rest of the night, which would have featured Fatboy Slim and Djs from Boys Noize’s label. Disappointed, the crowd were forced to spill out into the night, where Berlin’s legendary nightlife was sure to satisfy those who hadn’t yet had their fill of the party.

However, as Saturday arrived and the festival-goers turned up to dance their hearts out once more, the mood was surprisingly upbeat. Admittedly, it was hard to stay angry at the previous night’s events once Soulwax/2 Many Djs graced the stage, serving a healthy portion of electro sprinkled with hits such as “E Talking” and “NY excuse”.

Due to the change in programme, Boys Noize played much earlier than he is perhaps used to, but the Hamburger still drew in a huge crowd. With dirty bass blasting out from every speaker, we were exposed to an unrelenting wave of electronic majesty which, unsurprisingly, was welcomed by the Berlin audience with open arms.

As the evening drew to a close, we trotted over to Hangar 4 to catch some of Germany’s very own Peaches, whose space-age laser show perfectly complemented her androgynous appearance and vocals. Erm…Gaga who? To top it all off, we grabbed our final round of drinks and headed to catch Hot Chip, who despite missing the presence of Joe, (you know, the one with the beard) still put on a storming show and left us in high spirits humming “Ready For The Floor” as we checked out of the airport, only wishing that it could have lasted a few sweet hours longer.