Berlin Club Commission stated that nightlife won’t be back in full until the end of 2022. This news could be less shocking if we were not still at the beginning of 2021. It’s the end of January and major music festivals have already been allegedly postponed, most countries are confined with no end date and plans for a new life for the entertainment industry continue with a big ‘delayed’ stamp on top. On New Year’s Eve, many were eager to make the transition to 2021 and forget the terrible 2020 we all live in. However, this beginning of the year has not yet brought us very encouraging news about the pandemic situation. Is 2021 just a continuation of 2020? Speaking to Resident Advisor, a representative from Friedrichshain club ://about blank said:
‘2021 does not really promise to be any better than the past 2020 […] What we know and appreciate as a club culture depends on intensity, closeness, contact, intoxicating nights, sharing and exchange. As long as there is a risk of exponential infection and people die from Covid-19 every day, a return to the dance floor is not to be expected. The corona crisis intensifies capitalist injustices and worsens the social division, so that the economic conditions for carefree clubbing also deteriorate significantly. To what extent the Berlin party situation as we enjoyed before corona can be restored at all is not foreseeable.’
Events set to happen in Berlin have already been postponed for several months or even for a year. Nightlife’s restart will be a slow process according to Pamela Schobeß, Berlin Club Commission chairwoman and CEO of club Gretchen. Local news station Rbb24 reported a Sunday interview of Schobeß to Deutsche Presse-Agentur in which the delegate updated clubs situation:
‘We are the first to be closed and the last to be allowed to reopen’.
In addition to setting a return to normality for the end of 2022, Pamela Schobeß also reinforces that state financial aid to the sector will be crucial. Especially in the start-up phase, a government impulse will be indispensable to ensure oxygen to an industry that has been so affected by the Corona crisis. Berlin is one of the most important epicentres of the nightlife scene and its reality affects the industry in general. This is not the news that ravers would like to read, but we will follow the evolution of the situation waiting for better signs.
Image Credit: StockSnap from Pixabay
