Berlin nightlife won’t be back to normal until end of 2022, predicts Club Commission

The Berlin Club Commission expects it will take nearly two more years for the city’s nightlife to return back to its pre-pandemic state.

Pamela Schobeß, chairwoman of the nightlife umbrella organisation who also runs the club Gretchen made this prediction. She said to rbb24: "We are the first to be closed and the last to be allowed to reopen."

Schobeß noted that events planned for March 2021 have already been postponed for a year, and called on the local and state governments to continue financially supporting the sector when the country prepares to ease restrictions, saying: “It cannot go from zero to one hundred." Government support is currently secured until June this year.

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RA spoke to a representative from ://about blank, who agreed "2021 does not really promise to be any better than the past 2020," adding: "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."

Tresor’s Dimitri Hegemann offered more optimism, saying to rbb24: "We operate precisely and calculate very hard. We are assuming further aid programs and hope that the sun will shine again in July."

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Last month, Germany announced a €2.5 billion cancellation fund to cover the cost of events planned for the second half of 2021 that may be cancelled due to COVID-19.

UK Music recently warned British music festivals will be cancelled again this year unless the UK government offers similar support.

Glastonbury has already cancelled its 2021 event, although founder Michael Eavis has stated he wants to throw a smaller event in September.

[Via: rbb24]

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Features Editor, follow him on Twitter

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