Photo by Stephan Flad
There’s nothing wrong about a bit nostalgia. Wouldn’t you agree? And it looks like the 2013 edition of the BERLIN FESTIVAL knows a thing or two about this. Despite usually being quite a trendsetter for the hottest new hyped acts this year’s headliners feel a bit like the founders organized a festival 15 years back. First there is britpop heroes BLUR with their first show in Germany in over a decade. Than we have the always fascinating queen of art pop herself… no, it’s not LADY GAGA, it’s the unique BJÖRK. And we get synthie-pop veterans PET SHOP BOYS who bring their visual impressive show around the new album Electric to the holy halls of the former Berlin airport Tempelhof. Oh, and Kevin Shields and his resurrected shoegaze gods MY BLOODY VALENTINE are also part of the line-up. Yes, in this case oldies are true goldies.
You might wonder if this is a good thing. Well, maybe not in terms of pleasing a big young festival crowd but maybe in terms of satisfying the needs of ‘older’ music lovers. Or maybe it’s just good to do something brave in the times of all these exchangeable festival line-ups? Who knows? All that we know is that on September the 6th and 7th we’ll get entertained in many different ways on this visual impressive location in the heart of Germany’s capital. As usual the festival marks the final show of the BERLIN MUSIC WEEK – read right here what you can expect on it this year. And in some ways the BERLIN FESTIVAL also marks the sad end of the festival season while autumn is almost ready to surround us. The only proper way to act against this might be the form of celebrating – with a diversified mixture of various genres and acts.
Besides the big headliners there is plenty of other great names to discover. British wave-pop band WHITE LIES returns to German stages with the new album Big TV. Same goes for their fellow countrymen KLAXONS. There’s room for joyful folk moments with VILLAGERS and newcomers STILL PARADE and MIGHTY OAKES. We’ve got noisy post-punk by the ever pumping SAVAGES or psychedelic sounds by MARS VOLTA follow-up project BOSNIAN RAINBOWS. Hell yeah, there’s even room for gentle mainstream pop by ELLIE GOULDING or CAPITAL CITIES. And who wouldn’t mind a piece of fury German rap mastermind and longtime NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION friend CASPER?
And even when the regular program on the airport is over just like last year we get the chance to continue partying in the Club XBerg – featuring electronic madness by BOYS NOIZE, Maxim from THE PRODIGY, RÖYKSOPP and the whole “Ed Banger” posse celebrating its tenth birthday. Including DJ-sets by JUSTICE, SEBASTIAN and BREAKBOT. And who knows – maybe even DAFT PUNK show up. Anything is possible but it looks like two short nights in Berlin – clearly not the worst scenario. So, grab a ticket, visit Berlin (which is actually always a good idea) and celebrate past, present and future of the little beauty that is called music.
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