If you can find room for one more festival by the end of the summer, then you’d be hard pressed to find a better one than the Berlin festival on the first weekend of September.
Chances are music fans will be all festival-ed out of it by September after the Electric Picnic, but if you can’t make it to Stradbally or even if you can and simply want more of where that came from, then the Berlin Festival is well worth a visit.
As one of Europe’s coolest cities, nobody should ever need an excuse to visit Berlin, but the Berlin festival gives music lovers from this side of the world a chance to experience all that the German capital has to offer and take in performances from some of the best musical acts around while they’re at it on the first weekend of September (6-7).
The Berlin Festival has been running since 2005 and with acts like Ian Brown, Primal Scream and The Killers having headlined in the past, this year’s event promises to be just as good with Blur probably the biggest name on a line-up that also includes Bjork, Pet Shop Boys, MIA, Bastille, brilliantly named bands such as Strip Steve and Bosnian Rainbows and from this neck of the woods, Villagers.
Blur’s presence at the festival is kind of a big deal because it is their last gig in Europe before a string of dates in South America and a trip to Berlin may appeal to fans of the band who can’t make it to their gig in Kilmainham at the start of August, or others who end up liking that appearance so much that they will go all out to see Damon Albarn and the lads do their stuff once again.
An all inclusive ticket for the festival is a very reasonable €129 and the location at Flughafen Tempelhof – just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? – is easily accessed from Berlin city centre via public transport. All information about tickets, direction to the festival site and much, much more is included on the festival website.
Sound up your street? The good folks at Thomas Cook can sort you out…
For more information, you can e-mail Thomas Cook at [email protected] or give them a call on (01) 514 0406.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
