In the last year, since the pandemic, eight new nighttime advocates have been appointed across Germany. Stuttgart, Osnabrück, Leipzig, München, Dortmund and Wiesbaden have joined the long list of cities that are acknowledging and acting to protect and improve nighttime activities in their cities. 

Although all of the night advocates focus on their cities’ specific needs, they all underline the need for more recognition and attention to the night. Their aim is to strengthen the communication between creatives and administrators, amplify the culture and protect the spaces that allow politics of diversity to happen. Following lockdown conditions and the immense impact, the pandemic had on creative communities, the increasing number of night advocates points to more inclusive and 24-hour cities.

Here are the lists of new night advocates and their respective cities:

1. Andreas Topp and Nils Runge – Stuttgart
2. Jakob Lübke – Osnabrück 
3. Nils Fischer – Leipzig
4. Kay Mayer – München
5. Christoph Stemann – Dortmund
6. Daniel Redin and Pascal Rück – Wiesbaden

With the addition of these names 11 cities in Germany now have night advocates protecting and promoting the night. Here are the existing night advocates:

• Robert Ga – Mannheim – Nightmayor
• Pamela Schobeß, Sascha Disselkamp, Marcel Weber, Lutz Leichsenring – Berlin – Clubcommission 
• Thore Debor – Hamburg – Clubkombinat
• Heiko Rühl – Cologne – Klubkomm
• Katrin Gruel – Leipzig – LiveKommbinat
• Matthias Morgenstern, Ansgar Fleischmann, Christian Baums – Frankfurt – Clubs am Main

If you want to know more about the night advocates in your cities, VibeLab has created a map in which you can see all the night advocates throughout the globe. If you want to know more about models of nighttime governance and how they could impact your city, we recommend reading Chapter Five of the Global Nighttime Recovery plan.

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Over the last years, the incident reports of spiking UK and Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, and France have increased. Whilst using needles to administer drugs without consent has come forward as a common phenomenon. In Berlin, multiple accounts and stories have emerged regarding spiking incidents. Public discourse has been robust on the matter, increasing awareness, but also increasing fear.

Researcher Bengi Guven has provided a tool kit for tool kit on what to do in a case of spiking that offers concrete action steps: 

• What can governments do?
• What can clubs/ promoters do?
• What can the community do?

Read the full tool kit here

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The festival Tour De Moon will take place between 11 May and 16 June 2022. Happening in Leicester, Newcastle, and Southampton, the festival asks why can’t we imagine a new way of thinking/dreaming/doing? 

The festival will provide a platform for plurality, fresh thinking, and new ideas. A unique, immersive 3 city 4-day festival of free public events – Leicester 13-16 May, Newcastle 27-30 May, and Southampton 10-13 June – all linked by a touring sustainable Convoy (11 May – 16 June) and celebrating nightlife and youth countercultures from across the UK and beyond. Leicester and Newcastle tickets are already live and Southampton will follow on the 4th of May. 

Tour De Moon is composed of more than 90 individuals as a part of its team, as well as the Youth Reporter Board and Advisory Board and further collaborative organizations, all working together to build a festival committed to plurality, decolonial practices, social and racial justice, solidarity and equity. 

To get the Newcastle tickets and find out more about the festival check out their website. 

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Beginning of April a new collective in Istanbul was founded, Sirän. Founded by Berlin-based DJ Nene H and Istanbul-based DJ Y.UNAN, Sirän wants to expand the conversation on nightlife, provide safe spaces for marginalized members and create a genre bending rave experience. They also want to strengthen the cultural exchange and networking between artists from Istanbul and Berlin. VibeLab conducted a short interview with the founders to get their vision for Sirän.

“We want to create a humane, open and real space that people can come together and discuss,” says the founders. A safe place in which marginalized members can come together to celebrate, explore and express themselves freely. No discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, skin color, size or clothing has place here. 

The first of their events Sirän Rendezvous #1 will take place between 5th and 6th of May in Suma Han, Istanbul. It will have a day of workshops followed by a day of artist talks and a party to wrap it all up.

The founders say that they have been separately interested in creating a space like this in Istanbul for some years. They wanted to expand their scope from only conducting music events to highlight the culture more. They also underline that it is very important that the collective does not have a top down structure but it provides a space for everyone to come together and do something together, without competition.

Crushed by harsh economic conditions, the nighttime of Istanbul took a big toll in the last couple of years. As a consequence the scene is changing, people who participate in it are changing and the cultural aspect of it stays in the background. There are also prevalent feelings of stuckness in the scene, highlight the founders. It is exactly here that Sirän is centring its focus because they believe everyone deserves to have fun and parties provide these little breathers to increase joy of life. 

“Big name bookings are already happening in Istanbul that’s why we found it important to help bring the cultural aspect to the forefront. This is a cumulative subject, when it only exists as an event you buy a ticket and go to, the embracement of it, the collectiveness of it doesn’t happen, it stays too cold.”

For their first event Sirän will host talks revolving around subjects such as techno culture, creating awareness in clubs and meaning of safe spaces, key parts of career development, differences between underground and mainstream, creating a community and individuality and the philosophical implications of clubbing. In addition to talks there will also be DJ workshops limited to 10 participants, women and LGBTQIA+ applicants given priority. The founders say that this is very important for them because they want Sirän to be a space to gain confidence and agency for marginalized communities. 

The collective also aims to link Istanbul with a wider network of global cities and create collaborations between them. They are aiming to organize at least 4 events yearly, the next one planned around September with Berghain’s newest resident DJ Sedef Adasï. To know more about the works of the collective check out their Instagram.

Stay tuned for updates on the Global Nighttime Manifesto that shares the ideas and voices of global pioneering collective and organizers and communities. The Manifesto represents our dedication to imagining and fostering a safer, more equitable and sustainable nighttime. The Manifesto also marks the rise of a new wave of global partnerships and advocacy, research and community-based initiatives that aim to improve the nighttime sector.

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An article published in rbb on 5th of April reports an assault that took place over the weekend in Kreuzberg, Berlin. Danny, a queer person who left his home country exactly five years ago to find a sense of security and freedom was attacked in broad daylight in the middle of the city.

Many people who have heard the event or Danny has been in contact with were very surprised to hear that such incidents take place in Berlin. To some people though, it is not surprising at all. Such incidents happen to them or to their friends almost every day. “In the last year I heard of so many incidents that happened to my friends or to people in my surrounding and now to me” Danny says. There is a gap in the perception of violence that is prevalent in our cities.

Violence in our cities, especially towards marginalised communities is not an isolated event, it is also not location specific. Bastian Finke from the gay anti-violence project Maneo says that almost every day attacks on LGBTI are being reported. Although the number of unreported incidents are estimated to be around 80 to 90 per cent. Even in the cases that do get reported at the end, it is highly unlikely for any real action to take place. Without video evidence or witness statements the proceedings are usually dropped. Even with proper evidence cases similar to this are not pursued so much. Knowing how the process unfolds from his friends Daniel decided to take matters into his own hands and decided to film his attackers and contact the police. 

On a Saturday afternoon, in the middle of one of the most crowded corners of Berlin, nobody came to offer their help to him. On the contrary, people from shops around rushed out to help the attackers, he recalls. Some who eventually came to help were threatened by the attackers. When the police arrived, the attackers laughed at Daniel, “nothing can happen to us” they told him. A 30-year-old suspect in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene was arrested and taken into police custody before being released. 

Bastian Finke notes that Kreuzberg, North Neukölln, Mitte and Schöneberg have the highest number of attacks against LGBTI, but he also underlines that these are only the cases that are reported. “Wherever LGBTI people become visible, they also run a great risk of being attacked”. On March 31, 2022 not so long ago the Trans Day of Visibility was celebrated. Whilst it is a step further to celebrate Trans Visibility and expand the conversation a big criticism from the trans community exists as well. A post on instagram on this day goes “Trans day of don’t perceive me if you won’t protect me”, when a group has visibility without security accommodating it, they put themselves into danger. Visibility without proper framework conditions falls short in offering legitimate solutions to marginalised groups.

Next to visibility we also have to talk about allyship. A trans woman from the Middle East who is a resident of Berlin also noted that in the last 6 months she has been attacked 3 times, mostly in Kreuzberg and Neukölln. All of these incidents took place in broad daylight in crowded places and very little help came from by-standers. How to be an active bystander and ally, offering help in situations like these is also a very important conversation that needs to happen more seriously. 

Amongst the residents of Berlin a big group of people came here to get a sense of belonging and feel safe. Daniel is one of them. He was threatened with death in his country of origin because of his sexuality and religious beliefs. He came to Berlin precisely to get away from this and is now facing similar situations in Berlin. He is asking himself “did it happen because of my jacket or painted fingernails? Shall I now be careful of what I wear?”

Daniel was taken to the hospital with bruises on his head and was released some hours later. He is adamant in pursuing his case “I will not put up with it, not for me and not for anyone else. It’s not easy to be gay. Other people have paved the way for us. Well I have to do mine.”.

This Friday the 8th of April VibeLab is hosting a panel on NTIA’s Nighttime Economy Summit focusing on global nighttime safety and wellbeing. In this event citywide crime prevention and urban safety strategies will be discussed. The policies and methods that have been used so far to make our cities safer, e.g. prohibition, policing or stronger security measures, have proved themselves to be ineffective. We need to focus on sustainable urban development that takes wellbeing and inclusion into consideration.

Read the full article here.

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The Clubtopia is a project based in Berlin that works on sustainability and climate issues within Berlin’s club scene. They promote green clubbing and help clubs reduce their environmental footprint by offering consultancy services and organising round tables together with sustainability and nightlife experts. They also publish a Green Club Guide, a guideline for clubs to reorganise themselves when making the change to green.

Clubtopia turns the statement “dance like there is no tomorrow” around and asks the scene to reflect on its carbon footprint. The club Schwuz in Neukölln is one of the clubs that underwent an extensive reorganising in this regard. In an article published in nd-aktuell this reorganisation and its effects are explained in detail.

“The club scene does not have a particularly rosy CO2 footprint, so there is a great need for adjustment” the article goes, especially considering the city’s aim to become climate neutral by 2045, according to the Berlin Senate. As progressive pockets within our cities clubs are “addressing the urgent questions of sustainability and ecology in the worsening climate crisis”.

 Schwuz first took part in the energy consultancy service five years ago. Although the operators of the club state that making the change was a “mountain that seemed insurmountable” in the beginning, it was broken down to smaller steps and today Schwuz has reduced its carbon footprint exponentially. It achieved this by installing LED lamps, urinals without flushes, aerators for the sinks, getting rid of the refrigerators that were not frequently used, separating the trash and changing their drink suppliers to a local one. Changing its electricity providers proved to be the change with the biggest impact. By switching to green electricity Schwuz saw a reduction over 90 per cent of its CO2 production.

Read the full article here.

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