Gegen Berlin – A Loopy Evening Out at Package Kat’s Queer Social gathering
It should’ve been simply after 3, possibly 4am. It wasn’t very darkish out, however that’s typical for a summer season night time in Berlin. Out of the U-Bahn station, we made our approach as much as the doorway of the Package Kat Membership, Berlin’s most well-known intercourse membership. We had been a gaggle of two guys and two ladies, and solely at a 50 p.c queer ratio. The get together, Gegen, takes place each two months and is mostly thought to be Package Kat’s queerest intercourse get together — although, admittedly, the night time is way much less sexual than different membership nights at Package Kat. (Go on a Saturday and you may see for your self!)
Two guys forward of us within the brief queue had been turned away. I wasn’t nervous; I used to be nonetheless working on that top you’ll be able to solely get from an evening out dancing with pals. We’d come from the indie membership night time at SchwuZ the place I’d efficiently scored a younger man’s quantity. We had been drunk and attractive, able to proceed our night time of debauchery.
Earlier than we’d even gotten to the door, I had my shirt off—able to strip additional as wanted. The best way the door coverage at Package Kat works is, in the event that they don’t allow you to in, simply take away extra clothes till they are saying “okay.” My different pals had been stripping, too—her boobs coming out of her bra and sufficient tattoos between the 4 of us to assert a little bit of that Berlin authenticity.
Strolling inside, we skipped the coat examine (the place much more folks had been stripping and/or becoming harnesses or different gentle fetish gear). We made our well past the crowds huddled across the bathrooms (you already know what meaning) and right into a room with a throbbing crowd transferring to a pulsing beat.
I used to be virtually bare at this level, and as we acquired deeper into the group and to the entrance of the stage, we’d all stripped ourselves of as many layers as we might — right down to our underwear, dancing and touching and transferring. And sweating. So, so, a lot sweat.
Gegen’s theme centres across the German translation for the phrase — it may imply each “towards” and “round.” The get together’s premise: “We don’t want to design a celebration simply to present you a secure area and safety. We’re not promoting you the chance to be ‘queer’ for one night time. We wish to expose you to your personal fears and pleasures by pushing you to grasp how your personal energy mechanisms are produced. For this reason we invite you to be Gegen by performing your psychosis, by being the enemy of your self, by considering and being out of b/order and by destroying each rational thought.”
The get together embodies all the pieces that’s fantastic about Berlin’s nightlife. It’s a queer get together, however not everybody’s homosexual. Some individuals are bare, others are sporting fetish gear. Younger or outdated, skinny or fats, homosexual, queer, straight — it simply doesn’t matter. And nobody cares. There’s no clear definition on what you need to be sporting or what you need to be doing. You’re there for you. It’s an empowering feeling — to be so open and free and trusting with strangers.
After all there’s a darkish room within the membership, too. And a basemen, the place you’ll inevitably discover some group motion — guys with guys with ladies with ladies with guys. The get together’s sexual solely if you need it to be, however that’s what makes it so particular. It’s a enjoyable membership night time, whether or not for intercourse, for the music or for the crowds. Decide your taste.
Maybe predictably, I bumped into various acquainted faces on the membership: that Grindr hookup from the week earlier than, somebody who acknowledged me from the café I’m at all times working at, a good friend of a good friend. There was the man I went on a date with 4 years earlier. With the fixed flux of individuals transferring between the rooms and one another, the area is kind of conducive to assembly folks (whether or not you wish to or not). And the music, it’s among the greatest. The Gegen DJs appeal to their very own crowds as a lot because the Package Kat spectacle.
Package Kat is a wierd membership, with a maze of rooms and curtains hiding soiled deeds, some elements indoors, others open air. The loos get quite a lot of in-and-out motion with teams within the stalls. However maybe its most iconic function is the decent-sized swimming pool in an outside courtyard. Whereas the music went on all night time, we ultimately made our solution to the sting of the pool, ingesting low-cost beers and making new pals.
As soon as 8am rolled round, and the summer season sunshine began burning down on our half-naked our bodies, we left the membership for a make-shift breakfast at a grocery retailer. Turning down a secret rave in a close-by forest with a gaggle of French college students, I jumped in a taxi and headed house, already anxious for the subsequent get together.
Gegen Berlin takes place on a Friday, normally on the very begin of the month, each two months. Discover extra nightlife suggestions in my information to Berlin. Header picture courtesy of Gegen Berlin. An earlier model of this text first appeared on DailyXtra—one in all Canada’s largest queer publication.
