Since I was in Berlin for Popkomm and my flight out was on Saturday morning 8 am (I didn’t book it…) I decided to go to the Friday night of Berlin Festival, which took place, like Popkomm, on the airport Tempelhof.

I took a small peak around 6 at the end of Popkomm but then left for some meetings outside of the aiport. I was done around 11 and had some time left before the acts I wanted to see I took a nightly tour along the most touristic spots.

I’ve seen them dozens of time, been inside and all, but still I like to see the Reichstag, the Brandenburger Tor, Checkpoint Charlie and the Fernsehturm. I also wanted to check out the Jewish memorial by night… So with time to spare I did it all within 45 minutes time, driving from spot to spot. And after that it was back to Tempelhof for Berlin Festival.

I went alone since my colleague wanted to stay at the appartment and at the entrance I met some a fun crew from Delft with whom I hang around during the night. We started with Erol Alkan and from there we went to Hangar 4 where Atari Teenage Riot was causing mayhem. Last time I heard was about 8 years ago, but it hadn’t changed. Chaos !

Then Dutch group BoemKlatsch took the stage for about 20 minutes to warm up for 2 Many DJ’s and were pumping the crowd… very nice… We were waiting for 2 Many DJ’s but then Intro’s frontman took the mic and announced the festival had to be closed due to security reasons. Everybody had to leave the festival….. And so I did…

I went back to the appartment to get my colleague and my bag and we left (me wihtout sleeping) for the airport. Our flight was on time so that was a plus. I got to sleep maybe 30 minutes on the plane but that was it. We landed at Weeze (just across the German border with Holland) and then had to drive from there to Amsterdam.

When I finally got home I read the official announcement of Berlin Festival saying the festival would go on, but very limited. Only until 11 pm.

A damn shame… this festival had so much potential, but I’m not sure if it will come back…. Let’s see what happens in 2011.