A QUEER UTOPIA: WHOLE FESTIVAL RETURNS FOR ITS SIXTH EDITION TO FERROPOLIS
During the peak of summer, from Friday August 2nd to Monday August 5, WHOLE Festival returns to the peninsula of Ferropolis, Gräfenhainichen for its sixth edition. Just outside of Berlin, the dystopian “city of iron” will once again be the hotbed for unifying, celebrating and further forging the international electronic music community.
WHOLE is a community-based, co-created event highlighting Berlin’s queer electronic music scene along with global collectives that establish secure havens for their communities, employing dance as a dynamic instrument for socio-political progress and acceptance in their respective nations. This gathering brings together these diverse scenes to honour its milestones. Through a rich tapestry of workshops, panels, performances, artistic expressions and musical interactions, WHOLE encourages a profound exploration of queer identity. Through sharing knowledge and offering options to engage in discussions on pertinent community issues and therewith fostering growth and supporting mutual learning, community healing and empowerment.
Spanning six stages across Ferropolis, WHOLE provides a vibrant space for the community to dance and liberate their bodies. From witnessing golden hour at the beach stage, dancing the night away in the coloured forests, enjoying a wide range of bass-adjacent music at the Crane Stage, immersing in the FLINTA play space or cruising village, or witnessing mornings unfold through uplifting house and techno at the Antenna stage outside a warehouse, or in the techno focused Arena stage surrounded by iron cranes.
This year, these stages will be hosted by 12 tight-knit Berlin collectives and 16 international collectives from the global scene, ranging from 10 countries like Vietnam, Spain, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Canada, Denmark, United Kingdom, Brazil, United States and The Netherlands.
Each year WHOLE invites new collectives to further build and expand on connections within the electronic music community. New this year are Hanoi’s “Equation Festival”, focussed on sounds from the Asian scene, London based techno-rave-come-performance art-platform “Inferno”, Brooklyn-based techno collective “Merge”, DJs Chippy Nonstop & Karim Olen Ash’s Toronto-based events centered around fluidity “Pep Rally”, “SWEAT” Copenhagen/Berlin’s dancefloor healing collective, Berlin’s “Kilowatt”, a black run electronic & techno club series focussing on representation of BIPOC artists, DJs THC, DHC & Byron Yeates newly found Berlin-based collective “La Noche”, Berlin’s queer Arab pop-party “Adira”, Berlin’s feminist sound crew “Soundsysters”, Latinx joy from Madrid’s “Felina”, music from underground talent of Bogota’s “Muakk”, and Berlin’s “Weeeirdos”, a party series supporting queer artists founded by DJ LOLSNAKE.
Returning collectives this year are London’s iconic party “Adonis”, Brazil’s “Batekoo”, a steady force of energy within Brazil’s QBIPOC community, Berlin’s “Body Language” a femme-focussed party series for community building, Berlin’s long-standing house and techno party “Buttons”, Berlin’s steamy and electrifying party “Cocktail d’Amore”, Amsterdam’s hyper-pop, trance, techno and rave collective “De Reünie”, Berlin’s sex-positive party focussed on harder techno “Gegen”, “Herrensauna”, another harder-sound-focussed collective, “Kwia”, Berlin’s favourite ambient listening space and collective, Berlin’s feminist collective “Lecken”, Barcelona’s “MARICAS”, a FLINTA* queer techno, pervy and loving party. One of Berlin’s favorite parties focussed on funky, sassy and old-school techno and house music “Mala Junta”, “Mamba Negra” Sao Paulo’s, female-run DJ collective and activist platform for women, black people and the LGBTQIA+ community, producers, and performers, Berlin’s multidisciplinary art, sex-positive, inclusive and kinky collective presenting pornography as queer “Pornceptual”, Berlin’s LatinX Party “Puticlub”, Eris Drew & Octo Octa’s US-based collective and label “T4T Luv NRG”, Kyiv’s first-queer collective focussed on electronic music “Veselka”, and “Zvuk” the Kazakhstan-based collective run by DJ Nazira, transforming the central Asian scene.
All weekend, spells will be cast by community-favourites like:
AGY3NA, Angel D’lite, Bashkka, Bored Lord, Boris, Byron Yeates, Cashu, Cem, Chippy Nonstop, DJ AYA, D.Dan, DJ Fuckoff, DJ Gigola, DJ Nobu, DJ Saliva, Eris Drew, Gideon, Hyperaktivist, ISAbella, JakoJako, Jennifer Cardini, Juliana Huxtable, Kiddy Smile, Lolsnake, LYDO, Lakuti, Mama Snake, Marie Montexier, Metaraph, Musclecars, Narciss, Nazira, Octo Octa, Pablo Bozzi, Peach, Roi Perez, Ruby Savage, S-candalo, Saoirse, Shy One, Slim Soledad, Supergloss, Suze Ijo, Tama Sumo, The Blessed Madonna and Volvox.
