There is probably no party atmosphere anywhere at the moment – least of all where you normally live from it. The event industry fears for its existence because of the corona pandemic and has therefore again called for a large demonstration in Berlin.
Under the motto “Red Alert”, members of the industry want to demonstrate again for more support from politics on October 28th – thousands of people had already marched through the government district under the same motto on September 9th.
A truck and car demonstration train that starts at 10 a.m. at Olympischer Platz is to come together on a walk at Alexanderplatz – at the symbolic time of five past twelve. All participants then want to move to the Brandenburg Gate together, where a rally is planned for 2.30 p.m. Among other things, the organizers are calling for a financial bridging program and an adjustment of loan programs to relieve entrepreneurs.
After all, some Berlin club operators can already look forward to Corona emergency aid. After the cultural administration first walled up how they distributed the 30 million euros, the club political spokesman for the Green parliamentary group, Georg Kössler, made a parliamentary question. It can be seen that the clubs in Emergency Aid Program IV were given very different attention.
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The state supports the Tempodrom and The Pearl with half a million euros each. The KitKat received more than 160,000 euros, SchwuZ and Club Else received more than 110,000 euros. The two larger clubs Watergate (25,000 euros) and About blank (23,795 euros) got comparatively little.
“Then we wouldn’t have had to go begging”
The two clubs apparently have to settle for less because they raised funds and took out pre-financing loans. “It’s a bit frustrating – we didn’t have to go begging,” says Ulrich Wombacher, co-founder of Watergate. More than 100,000 euros came from fans, and he took out a loan. In the liquidity check, his company did well – but the reality is “horrible”. Unlike the emergency aid, he has to repay the loan. And the 25,000 euros of emergency aid at the Watergate is not even enough for a monthly rent, which, according to Wombacher, is almost 40,000 euros.
You fight “from month to month,” says Wombacher, who is responsible for around 20 permanent employees. He fears that his club will soon run out of liquidity. He had to advance the short-time allowance several times for months, the reserves were exhausted. Switching to the bar is not worthwhile – especially not since the introduction of curfew. She annoys Wombacher, she suggests that clubs and bars are spreading the virus. “The scene is stigmatized by politics as a dirty child.”
Green politician Kössler also criticizes the awards: Far too few clubs are supported and the processing times are too long. “If we want the ravers to take a longer break, it must be ensured that the clubs are all still there after the pandemic.”
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