How these Berlin club collectives are coping with the Covid-19 pandemic

Berlin’s nightlife has been turned upside down. But it wouldn’t be Berlin if people didn’t get creative. Initiatives like Club Quarantäne, a virtual dancefloor experience allowing you to stream DJ sets by the likes of Helena Hauff and Marcel Dettmann at home, is just one example of how the city’s club culture is responding imaginatively to the crisis. Still, it’s equally important to keep the IRL scene alive: to get the community involved and to give something back by donating. 

One of these initiatives is Berlin Collective Action (BCA) which aims to provide emergency financial aid to at-risk nightlife workers and communities to cover urgent costs like rent and health insurance. In particular, Berlin’s queer raves often consist of BIPOC, queer, trans- and non-binary people, sex workers, non-EU migrants, freelancers and other marginalised groups who are all part of the at-risk communities mentioned above. The DJs, the artists, the door selectors, the crowd, and all the people behind the scenes who make happen what Berlin is most famous for—its thrilling and unique club culture.

We spoke with five of the collectives involved to understand how they are dealing with the current Covid-19 crisis and asked them to spread some positive thoughts to stay sane in these troubling times.

Lecken

“Whether we work in nightlife or in other fields, all of us are freelancers and are severely impacted by the pandemic,” says the femme*-forward party Lecken that explores queer and femme* sexual politics, and the potential of the dancefloor as a site to embrace sexiness and erogenous pleasures in a way that decentralises gender and genitals.

“This global pandemic is forcing us to become much more attuned to the distribution of privilege and vulnerability in our societies and across the globe as something we must never lose sight of or become complacent about,” Lecken explains.  For them, the crisis is teaching us two things: “1) When established structures are collapsing, it becomes apparent how communities are impacted differently depending on their citizenship, race, gender, sexuality and the political regime they live under. This global pandemic is forcing us to become much more attuned to the distribution of privilege and vulnerability in our societies and across the globe as something we must never lose sight of or become complacent about. 2) We will hopefully come out of this with a much more robust toolkit of skills and technologies for grassroots organising, and a new perspective on how to adapt it for the future.”

And positive advice?

POLY.Artists

“It’s been very positive to see how people are now working together in new ways, opening up communication channels and sharing ideas,” says the Berlin and London based booking agency POLY.Artists. As they like many others have had to pause their day-to-day, they are now trying to work together on solutions with their artists, promoters and other agencies to ensure a proactive response to the situation. “It felt extremely important to us to contribute in raising money and awareness,” explains the crew about joining Berlin Collective Action. “We want to do what we can to support people that are affected.”

The crew behind POLY.Artists hopes this crisis has galvanised new ways of thinking about how we organise on behalf of society, and within that, how club culture can operate. “Collaboration, connection and care are vitally important in all areas of life,” they state. “And this crisis has shown that it is possible to prioritise these over capitalism.”

And positive advice?

Berlin Strippers Collective

“After living in isolation, people might see how important human interaction, touch, and intimacy are, and have more understanding for people who seek the services of sex workers when they feel lonely or isolated,” says Berlin Strippers Collective, a group of feminist strippers.

“Our membership has effectively had their income swept out from under their feet,” says its members. “The strip club has closed, leaving us with very few options.” Even if online sex work is a possibility, the pandemic has seen a mass relocation of in-person workers online, so there is over-saturation as well as a whole set of new considerations related to online work to contend with. But that’s not their only concern: many sex workers don’t have stable housing or can’t take time off from in-person work which makes them vulnerable to COVID-19. “Hopefully this feeling we are experiencing will lead to a new awareness of what is truly valuable—solidarity and mutual support—and not what is sold to us as valuable. This pandemic will show how a crisis that affects one of us affects us all, even those who may feel exempt because of their privilege,” they state.

And positive advice?

Radiant Love

“As long as we can’t organise events, we’ll continue to put our energy into our label and work on community projects like Berlin Collective Action,” says Radiant Love, a rave, label, art and performance collective operating within Berlin’s queer underground. “We want to create some form of support for those most at-risk and not supported by the system.” It’s also a very personal reason why they joined as the people most affected by this crisis are their friends, their own community. “The redistribution of funds is absolutely essential at this time,” they explain. “Self-organised action is the pulse of nightlife—it brings us together, there we are seen and that’s what it’s all about.”

The campaign is a perfect example of what nightlife collectives can achieve when urgently coming together in unity. “Queer underground has always rebuilt and survived every crisis, our hope is that the more privileged take this time to STEP UP,” says the crew behind Radiant Love.

And positive advice?

Room 4 Resistance

Room 4 Resistance, the Berlin-based collective creating intentional feminist spaces prioritising womxn, queer, non-binary, trans, inter, BIPOC, and those who are most on the margin, was one of the first club collectives whose event was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Even though the decision seemed difficult to accept first, they decided to deal with the situation by sharing information and resources. “Earlier this month, we put together a document to direct people to some reliable information, tools for collective care and mutual resources to help support our communities in navigating the crisis,” they say.

It’s still too early for them to see the ‘after’, although they do believe that actions taken now can have a big impact on what comes next. “We all must do what is possible to resist the move by our governments to avail themselves of emergency powers and to use this crisis in order to increase mass surveillance,” says Room 4 Resistance. “This is a great moment for bottom-up organising that can give people direct experience of their collective power, and that they do not need to remain passive and wait for central governments to take action or issue directives.”

And positive advice?

You can support the Berlin Collective Action: Nightlife Emergency Fund here.