Silvester 2009/2010 @ Brandenburger Tor

Definition: In Europe, New Year’s is called Silvester. Hence, New Year’s Parties are called Silvester Parties.

I went to the biggest Silvester Party in the world on New Year’s Eve 2009. Some skeptics say it was number 2 in size, but those nay sayers are doubters. This party was held from the Brandenburg Gate to the Lady of Victory. A distance of more than 1km separates these two landmarks. And filling every possible spot in between these two famous monuments: people, thousands and thousands of people. We totaled in excess of 1 million people. And where was I?

I came straight from the theatre and arrived around 7:30pm with the intention of checking it out, then going out to dinner with Susanne & Bea, and returning afterward. Let’s just say I never made it out for dinner. It took me some time to figure out how to get into the center area inside the fence, but with a little work and some people skills I worked myself up to the fence to ask those around how to get in. Just as I got there, I feel a push from someone behind me. Turning around, I notice a smiling girl holding onto my jacket. She says, “They wouldn’t let me through, but they let you through, so I came along.” I now had a friend, who brought other friends, to enjoy the party with. Her name was Denise and she and her 3 companions were from northern Germany near Hesse. We made it into the center inside the gates, and the dancing began.

At first, bands played short sets, and it took longer to set up and clean up than their sets. In between DJ’s would spin some vinyl and we got a mixture of hip hop, techno, rock, oldies. In the beginning of the night they played Killers’ Human, and at the end, they played a remix of it. The first band to last a long time was this one:

People of all shapes, sizes, ages, and faces came to this party. I was amazed at how nonviolent it was. If people ran into someone else, both would turn and give hugs yelling, “Happy New Year” in various languages. Berlin brought a lot of happy drunks into their city for this party. New Zealanders came, Australians, Irish, Scottish, British, French, Germans, Americans, a whole bunch of people. Those were the ones I met though.

I took some videos of the night because I thought they would better represent the fun I was having. Here’s the first, Pink’s “So What”:

The Crazy Frog even made an appearance:

I was really pleased, and so were many others, as when the clock stroke midnight, they played a set of Michael Jackson’s songs which lasted almost 8 minutes. It was great.

And the music never stopped. Well sometimes. But they kept singing this German song the lyrics of which were: “It’s two thousand ten and we’re not gonna stop partying. Gonna party all night…

Then Captain Jack showed up again. He was the first performer that I saw, and most of them came back in the wee hours of the morning. He sang a lot more during the night:

The bass on the video sounds terrible because it was too much for my camera mic to handle. And when I say too much to handle, I mean it was deep, and pounding on my chest, so that I could feel it more than hear it. Absolutely fantastic. This makes up for me missing Love Fest this year.

They even played some ABBA:

So I danced for almost 8 hours and didn’t eat anything for 12 hours as I had a curry-wurst right before Avatar (15:50) and finally a bowl of cereal when I got back to the flat around 4:15. It was weird though, after 9pm, the hunger just sort of went away, and I ate the cereal because I thought I should, not because I was hungry. All in all, it was an awesome night. I’m thinking about flying back next year. I’m also thinking about the money needed to fly back. Anyway, I made some really fun friends and danced all night. Not a bad way to spend New Years. I got some short hours of sleep at the flat and then woke up to a new year: zweitausend zehn.