Fuckparade – 25 years protest from below

Against displacement, commercialization and senseless highway construction!

Against the commercialization of techno
Against the closing of clubs, bars and neighborhood shops
Against the sellout of the city
Against Nazis

On September 3rd 2022 the 25th Fuckparade took place in Berlin. Meeting point was at 14Uhr near subway Alt-Tempelhof.

“We are back. Fuckparade. Platform for the subcultures of the city” can be read on the back of the flyer. “Because what goes wrong in Berlin,” it continues. This year, the focus was on the following Berlin geographies:

A100:
An anachronistic asphalt and concrete road that, despite protests and proven climate damage, is nevertheless to be built further by hook or by crook. Absolutely unacceptable. Let’s shut down the avalanche of metal with our protest and turn the asphalt into a dance floor!

Hermannstraße:
A classic of Berlin urban development. Unbridled car traffic, although one floor below a well-developed subway can transport people in an environmentally friendly way. Needless to say, bike lanes are not really available.

Reuterkiez:
Here, monthly rents of 25 €/m² are readily paid. No limits for real estate speculation. The lobby has filed lawsuits to overturn the rent cap and the right of first refusal. Rents that continue to rise displace even long-time residents of the neighborhood. At the same time, Vonovia reports the highest profit in its history and announces further rent increases.

Treptower Park:
The current A100 construction section leads to Treptower Park, the end point of the Fuckparade. Each meter of this highway currently costs 203,125 euros. If the construction section continues towards the east, clubs like ://about blank, ELSE, Renate, Club OST, Kili, Kosmonaut and many more will be irretrievably destroyed.

A Parade Flashback:

The starting point was unusual, because it did not start – as almost always – at Friedrichstrasse/ Reinhardtstr. in Mitte, at the former BUNKER, but in Alt-Tempelhof, why I do not know. One reason was probably the nearby A-100 (see flyer text above), where the route started and which we crossed (see flyer route below) and the end point is near the upcoming expansion of the A-100. The starting point was pleasant, because next to the street was a small and beautiful park, where you could wait relaxed until it – as always a little later – started.

Especially the latter was completely absurd and super annoying, constantly there were measuring points and policemen running around with volume meters. During measurements, the music was tactically drastically quieter or turned off completely, which extremely disturbed the flow, but ensured that we were allowed to continue. Even if it was sometimes briefly over 90db, being a musician was disappointing to sad…90db is barely louder than a truck. But the mood on site, was still great.

For 25 years of Fupa, Martin Kliehm/ Traum XP, one of the founders, also arrived from Frankfurt and made the first speech, the last one was made by a woman in a wheelchair who complained that there was no affordable barrier-free housing for people like her, that there was hardly any affordable housing left in Berlin at all, and that this made her angry and that’s why we want to be loud today. She shouted the last, which caused applause and affirmative counter-shouts. Then it took a while until we started moving.

The police and the 90db rule annoyed massively, in between there were always “louder” chants from the crowd. When the music went off again for a longer time period, I once lost my temper and yelled at a six-pack of policemen that I demonstrate to be heard and not to sneak unnoticed through the city. The police also set the pace and pushed us along unexpectedly fast. I didn’t know most of the streets along the route after 10 years in Berlin, let alone ever danced on them. I really like this, similar to critical mass, exploring the city together.

This creates a good mood to the sad gentrification game. In most years the route passed more directly along the night life and cultural venues that were just closed or will soon be evicted. Driven by the tempo of police forces we reached the end point, the Treptower Park, 1.5 hours earlier. After 20min everybody let go of the inhibitions and 90db rule. The FuPa Crowd flooded the car road that leads through the park and turned it into a dance floor, the masses spread out on all the surrounding meadows and the Spätis at the S-Bahn station.

Lineup Subland Truck:

Gretchen Bazooka (16:00)
Acriter (16:45)
Neurocortex (17:30)
Joe ET (18:15)
Waynette (19:00)
Dolphin (19:45)
Li-Z (20:30)
Kat (21:15)

At the Subland/ A-Sound truck Dolphin then suddenly played earlier, in front of Waynette, and for an hour you could feel the energy crackle in the air, so charged was everything by the euphoria of the dancing people, everyone was grinning and happy that the music can finally be so loud that it can unfold its sonic power and ultimately be danced to. Unfortunately, the wonderful moment was short-lived.

Sadly, the two DJs Waynette and Kat, who were among the few women who DJed, did not get to play at all. Planned was until 22 clock, but at 20.30 it was all over. That was painful, and even decision of the Fuckparade organizers. I did not think that was a good decision, but for those who organize a lot at FuPa it is always a huge effort and they were probably exhausted and glad that it ended an hour earlier.

As there were also two afterparties – some years there were none at all – where many from the FuPa Orga either played or helped out. The Subland afterparty was at Kili Club near Ostkreuz and another open air at H13, Juliusturm near Spandau… Oh, it was nice! Hopefully next year again :)

This is a 39min video von KIEKE MA – jannz Berlin is eene Performance. Sadly only documenting the first half…