Club Wedding: Berlin's KitKat joins Sage

Two of Berlin's oldest music institutions will soon join forces. On July 1st, KitKat will move from its traditional venue Bessemer Straße to become main tenant of Köpenicker Strasse 76, the Sage Club.

Debuting on July 7th, the original date of meanwhile cancelled Love Parade, and taking place each further Saturday, Sage Club will host "CarneBall Bizarre" and its following afterhour, one of Berlin's former figureheads.

The past year had been a quite fluctuating for both, Sage and KitKat. Several times Sage booker Manteuffel overturned the music program, without further recognisable success. Erstwhile Sage fame, to be a pearl of house music, appears now a bit patina'ed. It's been a while since top acts such as Armand van Helden or Bob Sinclar played Berlin or notorious Blood party rocked the crowd. Also KitKat's recent nights are a story of up and down.

Sage's Friday nights will get a revamp - but that's a future dream though and will be announced later this year. Thursdays will remain to be a nod to rock as the club keeps on running Berlin's biggest rock music club night. While Saturday will be more or less a straight KitKat thing, future Sunday night will be a direct collaboration between both club teams.

The news of both clubs going a joint way was surely surprising on the one hand, but actually, financially seen, the only logic response to fight Berlin's crowd drain. This joint venture is a typical compromise. To KitKat's institutional techno and trance program this fusion will mean a dilution while for Sage it's definitely a tremendous asset.