Last weekend, The Brvtalist was lucky enough to attend the annual Krake festival with Helena Hauff, Umwelt (Live), CJ Bolland, Luz1e and many more.

The 4-days hybrid event took place online in a collaboration with Hör radio, Sameheads, FOLD London and Urban Spree and offline as a one-day event in Berlin hosted by Anomalie Art Club on 3 dance floors, starting on Thursday, November 11th and finishing on Monday morning, November 15th.

*all photos by Virginia de Diaz

Krake is a Berlin based electronic music festival organized by Killekill collective. Since 2008 Killekil has been a party promoter and a booking agency which specifies in versatile music genres, featuring experimental live acts and DJ sets with a specific visual accompaniment and distinctive artwork. In the very beginning, the collective organized weekly events at Kantine Berghain. As a booking agency, Killekill hosts such artists as Tigerhead, DJ Flush, Alex Cortex, who also released his music on Killekil record label, and others. Also, Killekill released 2 VA compilations of the same name as the festival: “KRAKE001” and “KRAKE002”, featuring such names as Perc, Barker and others.

On the opening day of the festival, Krake collaborated online with the streaming platform Hör and hosted such artists as Wes Baggaley, DJ Locati, Second Storey (Live), Playtronica (Live) and Alienata B2B DJ Glow. Also, Marlene Stark blessed the viewers with her DJ set streamed from Sameheads, as well as other live streams on November 12th, hosted by London based art space, record label and party promoter FOLD London; the Urban Boat party organized by cultural and artistic space Urban Spree and the legendary live act Transitors of Mercy.

Moreover, this time Krake wanted to highlight the attention to the lost music video culture and hosted a music video contest with a voting possibility online via Krake TV. The 4 winners will be announced between 11-13th December via the organizers’ website. Masker, Natalie Beridze TBA, Kör Boira, UHV and others were picked by jury as the best 10 videos of the contest.

On Sunday, the 14th, Krake blessed the fans with an Ambient comedown all day long including live-streamed DJ sets by Masma Dream World, Baby Vulture, Moon Armada and others.

This time, Krake was also collaborating with SONAR - safer nightlife Berlin during the party in Anomalie Art Club. SONAR is a co-operative project, organized by Berlin, The Eclipse Initiative and Club Commission Berlin7, that focuses on prevention and harm-reduction in the Berlin party scene. The organization offered safety-packages, vitamins, contraceptives gratis for every visitor and artist. In cooperation with feminist organizations LARA and Frieda, SONAR also raised such important topics as going through a traumatic experience, being a victim of sexual abuse, stalking, etc. The organizations offered a 24/7 hotline number in case of needed advisory and help.

The Brvtalist was already collaborating with SONAR at The Brvtalist Open Airs at Suicide Club earlier this year, and we totally support the idea of safety and awareness in the nightlife and think of it as a must-have at any party in Berlin and worldwide.

The festival wasn’t only about raving, but also about pushing small artists and labels, giving visibility to experimental projects, meanwhile announcing star headliners. It’s about collaborating, spreading awareness, combining on and offline. This makes a big contribution to the nightlife culture in Berlin and worldwide, which matches with our own philosophy and vision.

Personal highlights of Krake 2021:

Luz1e

Helena Hauff

Umwelt (Live)

Alienata B2B DJ Glow (Hör)

Wes Baggaley (Hör)

- Alisa Chepel

Listen to the mix that Annechoic prepared specially for The Brvtalist x Krake Festival collaboration with some diverse sound selection and incredible electro-infused skill set.