"Bar 25, our heaven, burned forever be thy name in our brains… thy show begin, in the circus as on the dancefloor…"
And so begins the trailer for ‘Days Out Of Time’, a new film that reveals the story behind the Berlin legend that was Bar 25, capturing much of the pulsing rausch within the club’s walls, until its sad closure in 2010.
The venue’s tale goes back to the 2004 whim of four young individuals, whose originality, skill and hard work produced a hub of escapism and creativity on the banks of the Spree – a counter-cultural, riverside haven where adults were allowed to entertain their inner-child’s urges, all to steady, heady beats. The two-minute teaser issued before Friday’s showing depicts scenes of wild saturnalia, with fireworks, headdresses, bikinis, mud-fights, skateboards, swimming pools, foghorns and a toy-dinosaur-race all making an appearance.
Undoubtedly, for its six-year history, the club was a resounding success, with two-hour weekend queues a regular feature, and a door policy that favoured ‘kook’ over ‘look’. During the week, it became a creative space, offering food by a guest chef each Wednesday, while ‘village life’ resumed for the four founders, who, despite the club’s vast turnover, lived on-site in a trailer.
All success aside though, the vision of the four individuals provides the backbone of the story here. In providing a contained space, free of convention and the staid structures of the modern city, they fly the flag for a return to unrestrained personal freedom. A truly counter-cultural environment, the tale of Bar 25 subverts the adult notion of clubbing, in a return to youthful reckless abandon, with the organisers rejecting the world outside the club compound. Upon floating the idea of building a grocery store on-site, one says how ‘It’s tough… to go out in the real world’.
This week’s airing of ‘Days Out Of Time’ thus serves as a eulogy to a cultural space that might’ve been so much more.
Words by Tom Phelan
'Days Out Of Time' is set to be shown in London this Friday (October 5th) at the Village Underground. Event page
