Grant Taylor (a friend from undergraduate studies, who lived in Berlin for a year) 5th February 2010 “The first encounter I had with Berghain was merely a conversation had with a fellow student during the first year at university. He mentioned that during a trip to Berlin, he and his mates went to Berghain and all of them had their hoods up to look cool. This was a bit meaningless to me at the time, having never heard of the club. But anyway when I found myself living in Berlin during 2009 and 2010 I experienced first-hand an encounter with the club. Two students from my university decided to work in Berlin in our architectural years out. And my friend [Lawrence Carlos] decided to visit Berlin on his birthday. I had an other friend [Chris Moger] over from London that weekend so it seemed like a good idea to try out the so-called best club in the world. I knew from living in Berlin that the club was open from Friday all the way through to Sunday, day and night. So when we arrived in the queue at about 1.30am with a load of other mates in the freezing cold snow-laden Berlin we hoped that the queue would move quickly, but as the queue slowly trudged along we noticed the large amount of people getting turned away at the door. There seemed no reason for the rejection and yet it seemed like every other person or group didn't stand a chance, it hit me that maybe you had to look cool, or not be a tourist. So I told my mates to be quiet and for me to do the talking in German. So there we waited for over an hour in the minus temperatures freezing our feet off. We kept out silence and when we arrived at the front, the bouncer, who seemed to be letting a higher percentage in, took a break and a new one came on. He just waved his wrist away from the door, there wasn't even a need to plead as it was clearly futile. We trudged away feeling dissatisfied by our roughly two-hour wait. Who knows what's in there? I heard that only the panorama bar is open on Fridays and so the capacity was much smaller. But I hate to admit it but maybe we were obviously tourist or uncool. I hear that a labyrinth of hedonism exists within those walls, I imagine a multi-levelled maze where I've heard there is one room where one’s camera is removed from them and untold sexual practices take place. But I can only speculate. It seems unfair that such an undemocratic entry process can exist, but maybe the bouncer judged that we wouldn't add to the atmosphere. I look forward to getting in there someday! Hopefully!” --Irfan Lamba (a friend from secondary school) 1st January 2013 “My account of Berghain [after being refused twice on the same day, firstly in the morning, secondly at late afternoon]: demoralising, devastating, forgettable.” ---
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