Lollapalooza Berlin 2022: Day One – festival review

Lollapalooza Berlin | Day One
Olympiastadion & Olympiapark
24th-25th September 2022

The sixth edition of Lollapalooza Berlin finally rolled into town over the last weekend in September after the big C induced two-year forced break. LTW photographer Svenja Block captured all visuals on top of reporting back from day one.

My Lollapalooza Berlin experience started by admiring the great scenic view across the Olympiastadion and the massive Perry’s Stage on the grass pitch – it had been fairly busy in the Olympiapark already but there weren’t many people attending to any of the four stages at all. I put that down to it being early on in the day but was in for a big surprise when I discovered that almost the whole pitch (covered up to protect the precious grass for upcoming 1. Bundeliga Hertha BSC home games) was filled with thousands of party hungry ravers having a great time during Alle Farben‘s DJ set. I would re-visit the stadion from time to time to soak up this incredible atmosphere but my main focus was on the musicians playing across the four big stages, although some DJ sets were truly amazing because they included live singers, stunning visual effects, and pyro fireworks.

Eager not to miss young British singer-songwriter Charlotte Jane, I explored the festival grounds and its offerings briefly while walking over to the Main Stage South that could be found next to the big ferris wheel. Charlotte’s 2022 single release 10 percent was already familiar thanks to some solid radio airplay – a song about experiencing pain, emotional chaos, disappointment, but also the feeling of empowerment at the end of a failed relationship with only one half committing with all their heart. The whole set was a lovely collection of melancholic, electro-influenced modern little pop gems. Having already made appearances at Reading Festival, Isle Of Wight, and Leeds, the future’s set to look bright for Charlotte Jane.

Moving over to the slightly smaller Alternative Stage a few minutes’ walk away, I found Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lyra to be looking stunning in a skintight onesie. Lyra’s music was a blend of danceable, dramatic, high energy pop, and her long, straight blonde hair was moving along beautifully every time she strutted from one side of the stage to the other. Lyra was clearly thrilled to be a part of the Lollapalooza family and addressed the onlooking festival goers accordingly.

The smallest of the four stages, the nearby Weingarten Stage was next on my list where an exciting number of rising female talent were due to play over the next two days – a wonderful celebration of womanhood presented by Radio Fritz personality Jule Kaden. Berlin-Schöneberg based trilingual hip-hop artist Babyjoy alias Joy Grant was refreshing to listen to; she rapped about emotions, feelings, and effortlessly changed from German to French, which added some extra spice to her performance. Babyjoy’s song Sorgen im Kopf (Worries In My Head) was an instant earworm for me and I have played it on repeat at home since.

The live audience was still somewhat thin on the ground as I walked back towards the Alternative Stage were New York City based singer-songwriter and bassist Blu DeTiger was finishing up a quick soundcheck. This stage was built very close to the Olympiastadion and I wondered what performing musicians thought about the massive roars and cheers that could be heard from coming inside of the stadion – it did sound like there was a football game going on there at times.

It also made me ponder if there were two entirely different sets of festival visitors on-site for Lollapalooza Berlin – those that came to enjoy live music and support the music scene versus the ravers embarking onto the ultimate 10-hour long dance party.

BluDeTiger was a dream to photograph – I was tapping along with my toes in the photo pit to her soulful, groovy, and laid back tunes that reminded me of the very hot summer that just finished in Berlin. The first three songs for us photographers to do our thing in the pit were over far too soon but Blu DeTiger was already one of my highlights – highly recommended.

Munich based Mola were waiting at the Weingarten Stage; singer Isabella Streifeneder immediately reminded me of female Italian rock icon Gianni Nannini even though Mola’s music was a dreamy mix of melodic pop and synth keyboards. Isabella sang about Vino Bianco, the ugly truth about excessive party nights, and love…all intertwined, of course. Her slightly rough and husky voice added authenticity and intensity to all performed lyrics.

German singer-songwriter and hiphop/pop musician Schmyt was the next surprise as soon as the Alternative Stage came back into my view: the place was packed out. One of the friendly security ladies down the front barriers told me that this would be a busy gig. I curiously scanned the audience in the front row – there were lots of excitable young faces in view, a young woman carried an adorable hand painted sign reading ”NUR HIER FÜR DEN SCHMÜTT” (ONLY HERE FOR SCHMYT).

When Schmyt appeared on stage, party central resumed, the crowd singing along, knowing all the words to the songs from debut album Universum regelt which was released in May 2022.

It’s important to note that this year’s edition of Lollapalooza Berlin saw an abundance of German/German speaking artists. Musical genres ranged from pop, the occasional alternative rock, soul, R & B, electronica, a bit of new wave and a lot of hip-hop/rap. I’d love to be the voice of reason offering palatable reasons as to why attempting to re-book the original artists after two years of an on-going worldwide pandemic and almost no festivals would be impossible – the stuff that is made up of logistical nightmares.

The German hip-hop/rap scene is huge and it was intriguing to explore musical genres that required me to leave my usual rock ‘n roll comfort zone. Young people in Germany have multicultural and sometimes challenging backgrounds, they need to find creative ways to express themselves in a way they can identify with – to tell their stories and raise awareness while finding a way of dealing with the harsh realities that everyday life in an often hostile world brings about. Hip-hop is the universal musical language of the street and streetwise. The world of rap and hip-hop is a dodgy one, you say? No more than looking at the entertainment industry as a whole where you’ll soon stop counting the number of questionable and narcissistic driven individuals. Ah, well.

The weather had been holding out so far, it was mild with grey skies and the occasional drizzle. Rain was predicted for later on in the evening, my plastic bags for covering up my camera lenses were thankfully not needed yet.

I caught a glimpse of German alt rock, pop outfit Milky Chance from afar on my way to the Main Stage South to see if the hype surrounding Scottish singer Paolo Nutini could be justified. Paolo certainly had stage presence, combined with an intense performance and a generous touch of of classic rock, psychedelia, and nostalgia. My mind was conscious of time and I would have liked to stay a bit longer to form an opinion about this talented British singer-songwriter but not so shy Danish pop sensation Jada already started her set at the Alternative Stage. Decked out in a tight lime green outfit, voluptuous Jada was embracing femininity, her voice strong, singing about confidence, self-care, and advocating body positivity. Jada has already had the honour of opening at Roskilde’s biggest stage and was named ”Best new live act” at the Danish Music Awards. A future role model in the making, we should be seeing a lot more of Jada across the European live music circuit in the future.

Ready to sample some food from one of the many food stalls scattered around the Olympiapark; the original idea had been to sit down somewhere near the food court and enjoy some tasty Thai food but the long waiting queues were a bit too time consuming. I set my eyes on the less busy organic Flammkuchen tent intead. The portion was generous and topped with veggies, the pricing unfortunately less generous.

There were several easily accessible free tap water stations on-site, important for rehydration and good for saving money for those with a small spending budget. Lots of drinking fluids required something else, too – a big shout out and thank you to Lollapalooza Berlin for providing a very satisfying amount of hygienic toilets and disinfectant stations across the Olympiapark.

Feeling energised and ready to witness rising female German-Gambian hip-hop artist Layla, it was time to walk over to the Weingarten Stage. I checked the time but no sight of Layla,  her cool on stage DJane was spinning tunes and keeping the anticipating festival goers entertained instead. There was a problem, Layla had performed at a festival out of town the previous day and she got stuck with her taxi driver on her way who was unaware of the many road closures and diversions caused by the Berlin Marathon set to take place the same weekend. What’s a girl to do? According to Radio Fritz personality Jule Kaden, Layla took matters into her own hands and switched to public transport before being shuttled directly to the stage. And finally…there she was, exquisite and gazelle-like, wearing sunglasses, having an aura of über-cool around her. The audience was following her every move, singing along the words to Hustla, a song about fragile male egos. I’ve made another mental note of following the German hip-hop scene more closely. Layla left a lasting impression on me, thank you girl.

The area between the two main stages was getting very busy with German-but-Turkish-rooted rapper Apache 207 taking over the Main Stage North, and the masses preparing for the take over at Main Stage South by American wonder boy Machine Gun Kelly. There was a real buzz in the air and the number of photographers waiting at the side of the stage seemed to have miraculously quadrupled. ”MGK, MGK, MGK” chants could be heard coming from beyond the photo pit, anticipation was building. Machine Gun Kelly was playing some European shows prior to Lollapalooza and the largest stage prop, a life-sized helicopter, was safely parked on stage instead of hovering above the excitable audience’s heads as seen at the beginning of the indoor stadium shows.

Machine Gun Kelly made an impressive entrance on stage: He was all coolness, cigarette in mouth, standing at the edge of the stage for a short while, soaking up the atmosphere, wearing fancy white sunglasses, the hair an adorable pink mess, a long black coat and a short, neon-orange top covered in silver spikes. The band was playing sans Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, but eagle-eyed observers swear they saw MGK’s girlfriend Megan Fox watching from one side of the stage. MGK rocked out and the very pleased crowd roared, sang along, pumped fists in the air and waved their arms along.

German four-piece indie-rockers Provinz played over at the Alternative Stage, it was great to see all areas in front of all stages filled with dedicated supporters by now; it was 7.30pm after all. Refreshments were needed and I settled for a classic bottle of coke that was not really a bargain at around five euros a pop. With drinks and food not allowed to be brought onto the festival site from home, an average family of four probably spent a small fortune over the weekend. Cologne based German indie-rockers AnnenMayKantereit were watched from a distance only – it started raining again and I was beginning to worry about water droplets on the front of my lens in case the weather worsened when the evening’s headliners took to the stage.

East German rock/pop/rap five-piece Kraftklub were wild and played to a full, so to speak, house. In the rain. The photo pit was an especially interesting place to be – heaps of rain water came down from via the edge of the roof, turning this into a fantastically wet experience if you happened to be standing right under it. These were photographer problems though; in the meantime Kraftklub stormed through their high energy set of modern classics Unsere Fans, Ich will nicht nach Berlin, Schüsse in die Luft, and Chemie Chemie Ya. Brand new single Ein Song reicht was played during the encore. Kraftklub  were definitely in good spirits, the band’s latest album Kargo was just released a day before the band’s show. With that in mind it was time to set off home, all tired but satisfied and looking forward to day 2 of Lollapalooza Berlin.

Please note: Use of these images in any form without permission is illegal. If you wish to use/purchase or licence any images please contact Svenja Block at blocksvenja@yahoo.com.

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All photography & words © Svenja Block. You can find more of Svenja’s work at her Linktree , and at her Louder Than War author’s archive 

Source: louderthanwar.com