WHAT A VENUE! The newly re-opened Metropol, where Torture Garden Berlin debuts on Feb 29. BANNER: TG manager Charlotte Heti (photo, left: Tony M) and Berlin-based Mark Clewes (photo, right: Hyder Images). Main image (centre): Torture Garden Latex will provide the fashion show at first TG Berlin (photo: @ayeshashootspeople; model: @emilymalice; boots: @natachamarro)
Torture Garden Berlin: top party comes to Europe’s top party city
TG veteran and Berlin resident Mark Clewes had long wondered why there’d never been a Torture Garden Berlin party. So he decided to do something about it – even though he had no event-hosting experience. By partnering up with a local German promoter and production team, and securing a fabulous, newly re-opened venue, he piqued the interest of TG’s London management – and as a result, the first TG Berlin is due to take place soon. Mark and TG managing director Charlotte Heti tell Tony Mitchell about the collaborative effort needed to deliver an authentic TG party experience in a city where outsider-run events are not exactly welcomed
As we predicted when it was first announced in November, Torture Garden Berlin quickly became viewed as the hot new date in this year’s fetish partying calendar.
This first ever TG-branded party in Berlin takes place on Saturday February 29, giving the leap-year day extra piquancy for the fetish world.
The venue secured for the party is the recently refurbished Metropol on Nollendorfplatz in the Schöneberg district — originally opened as a theatre and concert hall in 1905.
In the 1980s, the venue hosted legendary concerts by the likes of David Bowie, Nina Hagen and Depeche Mode. In 2000 it was even, briefly, home to KitKatClub before being remodelled in 2005 as Goya, hosting one-off club nights and private hires.
After closing in 2014, the elegant building re-opened in September 2019 as high-end nightclub Metropol Berlin.
Fittingly, given Berlin’s hard-clubbing reputation, the launch of Torture Garden Berlin on February 29 will run at Metropol for a full 12 hours from 9pm to 9am.
It will feature a fashion show by Torture Garden Latex, a body art ritual featuring AMF’s Louis Fleishauer with Gina Harrison and Devinity Berlin, a performance by London’s Marie Devilreux and more shows to be announced.
The DJ line-up includes Allen TG and Torture Garden regular Jimmy Mofo, plus a host of Berlin and KitKat favourites.
It will be bookended by an official (but not TG-hosted) pre-party at KitKatClub on Friday 28, and by an after-party on Sunday March 1 using the Metropol’s top floor and Elephant Room.
While news of TG’s Berlin debut was widely welcomed on the fetish scene, some also wondered: why had it taken so long?
How come it hadn’t happened years before, given the club’s long history as a ‘touring’ party brand with events in Italy, Japan and the USA?
Well first, it’s essential to understand that TG does not, itself, run those overseas parties. They are franchised events, for which TG partners up with local promoters who assume financial responsibility for their production.
The right kind of local partner is therefore an essential part of the mix. And there is probably no location for which this is truer than Berlin, which fiercely defends its nightlife industry against encroachment by outsiders.
For Torture Garden Berlin, TG’s local partner is British expat Mark Clewes, a TG regular who lives (mostly) in the German capital.
As a clubber, he has a very distinctive visual style that you may recognise from parties even if you don’t know him personally (see banner image above).
Mark and TG managing director Charlotte Heti (banner, left), who’s in charge of the London end of the collaboration, are both up for talking to me about this exciting new development in the fetish partying world.
I begin by asking Charlotte why she thinks Torture Garden Berlin has taken so long to happen, given that TG partying style would appear to be a pretty easy fit with Berlin nightlife culture.
“We’ve guest-hosted a room at GFB in previous years when they used the multi-room venue [Matrix] for the main Ball, and really enjoyed that,” she says.
“But we’ve been aware that there are a lot of established nights out there already, and would only want to start events in Berlin with a team that are based there and really know the local scene, to make the best party possible in a city with high standards.”
Charlotte explains that, in any conversation about franchising a Torture Garden night, TG makes it clear that the local partner will bear the cost of producing the event — and must also pay TG a licence fee.
“Plus, we have criteria for things that must be included to guarantee you can go to a TG any-where in the world and it will still feel like TG.
“We need to trust that the person is well connected to the scene in their city and understands the responsibilities of representing the TG brand — this is pretty universal and not limited to Berlin.
“They need to have experience of running events in their city and links to the community there, as although we will help promote via our channels, they are the ones attracting the locals from that city.
“So we need to see a track record which makes us confident that they are professional, reliable and knowledgeable and that they are the right person to attract people to the night.
“Once they realise they are responsible for paying for everything themselves, but in return will keep all of the ticket revenue, that quickly weeds out people who aren’t going to be able to deliver what they promise!”
This is interesting to hear because, while Mark is a well-known figure on the fetish partying scene and veteran of many TG events, he is not (as he readily admits), an experienced event promoter. So, I suggest, he must have put a pretty impressive offer on the table.
“This is his first foray into promoting,” Charlotte confirms. “But he does have a business partner who already produces successful (and very good) events in Berlin, aimed at the same kind of demographic as TG.
“So Mark is able to represent what TG should be like — knows what we and our customers expect from a TG night — and his partner has the experience needed for producing and promoting the night.
“His partner is also well connected in Berlin, and having spent time with them both in Berlin recently, the team feels like a good fit for us.”
But what persuaded Mark to pitch the idea to TG in the first place?
It turns out that he’d also been wondering why Torture Garden had not yet come to Berlin when it seemed such an obvious location for a TG event.
Then by chance his thinking moved up a gear in March 2016 when, a couple of months after David Bowie’s death, he visited Bowie’s old Schöneberg apartment on Hauptstrasse with a girlfriend.
Afterwards the pair walked to Christopher Isherwood’s old Nollendorfplatz residence.
READ MORE – GO TO PAGE 2 OF 2
DEVIL U KNOW: TG favourite Marie Devilreux will perform at Berlin debut (photo: Tony Mitchell)
Tags: Berlin, Fetish Weekends, Latex, Performance Artists
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