+++ 21 years successfully facing and surviving challenges +++ Dubfire, Joey Beltram, Sama Abdulhadi, Recondite, 8KAYS, Louie Vega, Carl Craig, Sven Väth and many more +++
The Berlin based club Watergate is celebrating its 21st birthday this year from 29.09 until late December with a dedicated series of carefully curated W21 parties. In good tradition the birthday events bring back club regulars and audience favorites like Dubfire and Joey Beltram (29.09.), Sama Abdulhadi (06.10), Recondite and 8KAYS (07.10.), Louie Vega (20.10), Carl Craig (10.11), Sven Väth (1.12.) and many more to be announced ..
„Here is to 21 Years of Watergate ! We are experiencing quite a rollercoaster ride here in ‚Club Country.‘ After the tumultuous intermission brought on by the pandemic and the subsequent healing of our deepest wounds, the cards in the city’s music scene are being reshuffled. Our Club stands strong while facing increasingly challenging circumstances. Once the go-to place for ravers from around the globe, Berlin has seen its international prominence dwindle while clubbing is no longer a hallmark of good manners.
In many places, festivals are replacing the early musical education that clubs used to impart in weekly Sisyphean work on regular club nights. Where once DJs trained their senses for the international crowd, dropping the right record at the right moment on a weekly basis, today it is often the marketing skill set that has moved to the foreground for performing on international stages.
Clubs became stepping stones for careers that now offer the prospect of stadiums, mega-stages and fees well into 5 figures. That being said, it is a miracle that Watergate still exists and continues to secure the ‚top-flight‘ status we have. Perhaps it is the merit of a magnificent team of individuals who breathe life and love into the Club, continually expand the vision, and open our ‚living room‘ to welcome dreamers, dancers, regulars and friends year after year. With that typical ‚Berlin manner, ‚ the team adapts and develops the Club’s vision and reality to current times and possibilities. Above all, we remain open-minded and unprejudiced towards the new and potentially different. With our resilient team, we navigate through turbulent waters and stormy times and, thanks to many new and old fans, continue strong onto our next journey around the sun. Twenty-one, what a legendary age! From today on, Watergate finally is allowed to enter Watergate! With this happy anniversary, the Club became the city’s oldest permanent club venue. We have reason enough to celebrate our birthday with a few special events…
W21 YEARS PRESENTS: Dubfire & Joey Beltram Eliza Feliz Lask Lewin Paul b2b Jacke
FRI, 29.09. 2023
W21 YEARS PRESENTS: Sama‘ Abdulhadi Marcel Fengler Marco Resmann STEYA
FRI, 06.10. 2023
W21 YEARS PRESENTS: Recondite 8KAYS Aglaja Brix DROWN Ede Skatman
SAT, 07.10 2023
W21 YEARS PRESENTS: Louie Vega LIA Natalie Robinson b2b Naomi Yamour Revivis
FRI, 20.10. 2023
W21 YEARS PRESENTS: Carl Craig, tba …
FRI, 10.11.2023
W21 YEARS PRESENTS: Sven Väth, tba…
Fri, 1.12. 2023 :
Watergate founded by Steffen „Stoffel“ Hack, Ulrich Wombacher and Niklas Eichstädt, the club opened on 26 October 2002. What began as an open-ended experiment at the
Oberbaumbrücke – one of the most striking urban symbols of the former border between West and East – quickly developed into a place for all who celebrate beats of any colour and the associated inclusive (music) culture as an integral part of a better future. Today, the club is a world-renowned and recognised institution. around the dancefloor. A dance floor on which local talent is still as important as international bookings.
Berlin music culture has always been more than house and techno. The founders of the Watergate had already internalized this fact long before the club opened. From the post-punk and industrial of the early 1980s, to the cultural change brought about by hip hop, which reverberated far beyond the music, to early acid, ubiquitous soul and the imported and always immediately adapted imprints of global sound cultures like reggae or drum and bass. Berlin always had – still has – an open ear. „We completely rebuilt the building,“ operator and co-founder Ulrich Wombacher recalls the six-month renovation. One building, two floors. „From the beginning,
we felt the magic that this place right by the river unfolds – especially in the morning hours.“ And with the rave tourism of the noughties and the increasing displacement of clubs from Berlin-Mitte, the Watergate in Kreuzberg developed into both an internationally known hotspot and a safe space for ravers from Berlin. Today’s musical direction came about as if by magic.
