Heideglühen

Heideglühen: House Music on a Site at Westhafen

Heideglühen began in the summer of 2011 in a potato garden behind old railway sheds on Heidestraße, not far from the main station. When the site was demolished, the club moved to Westhafen in 2012, where it remains on Seestraße to this day. Heideglühen deliberately does not state an address on its own website; only coordinates are provided there. The location is also not a clubhouse, but an outdoor area: an open space and next to it a covered floor under a glass roof, with a wooden dance floor, seating areas along wooden walls, fire pits, and light installations. Anyone coming for the first time is more likely to think of a small festival than a Berlin techno club, and precisely this difference is what defines its program.

Bass Floor, Line Array, and a Program Without Major Announcements

Technically, the site is built with consideration: indoors there’s a bass floor with body sound exciters, the DJ booth stands on its own vibration-dampened platform, and outdoors, a line array provides sound instead of individual point sources. Primarily house music is played, carefully curated, with guests such as Moodymann, Magda, Move D, Prosumer, Roman Flügel, Shanti Celeste, Ian Pooley, and Session Victim. Woody is the resident DJ, and the house label is Heideglühen Tonträger. In addition to the numbered releases, there are long weekenders lasting over a day and a half, and the “Heide from the Block” series, exclusively featuring ’90s and ’00s Hip Hop and RnB. Admission is from 21 years old, the club rarely publicizes line-ups, information is shared via newsletter and its own website. There is also a dedicated lost and found office.