Berlin club community to throw protest rave in response to A100 motorway expansion next month
"These prospects for the future are unacceptable to us," said the Berlin Club Commission
Berlin's clubbing community are set to throw a protest rave in opposition to the A100 motorway expansion next month.
Scheduled for Saturday, 2nd September, the protest rave has been organised by several clubbing groups in the German capital, including BI A100 citizens' group and the Berlin Club Commission. Also involved are several clubs that are at risk of closure if the proposed expansion goes ahead, among them ://about blank and Club OST.
Following a statement earlier in the year that the expansion would put a minimum of 21 cultural institutions - including several clubs - under threat, the Club Commission has said that the extension of the motorway from Treptower Park to Storkower Strasse could be "devastating". It is currently in its 17th construction phase.
In a new statement, the Commission said: "As a civil society alliance of neighborhood residents, climate activists and clubbers, we turn up the bass and invite you to a protest rave against the A100. The dominance of the car and the power of the automobile companies is still unbroken in this country. Highways have always been a priority in Germany. The Berlin government, too, propagates the autoconformist city."
It added: "In the affected neighborhoods, noise and emissions continue to rise, displacement and traffic collapse are the immediate consequences. The extension of the A100 would mean the end for more than twenty clubs and cultural venues; cultural open spaces, social projects and neighborhood communities that have grown over decades would be destroyed. These prospects for the future are unacceptable to us."
The protest rave comes four years after a protest rave took place to rally against an earlier construction phase of the motorway. According to a report by Resident Advisor, the 16th construction phases of the A100, which is currently under construction, will cost around €700 million. Experts believe the 17th phase could cost more than €1 billion.
Keep up to date with the protest and planned expansion via the BI A100 citizens' group website.
