Hoppegarten

The walk from the city to Rennbahn Hoppegarten took about thirty minutes, which meant you left Berlin behind. That distance felt intentional for what was happening that weekend.

Lollapalooza had settled into Berlin by then, and they’d moved the festival out to a horse racing track—there’s something good about that oddness, the displacement. The space changes the sound, everything carries different than it would in the city.

I went mostly for The xx. They’d just wrapped up a sold-out tour through Germany so this was their only festival show. Their sound had been the best music I’d heard in a while, all negative space and precision. I wanted to hear it live again. Mumford & Sons and Foo Fighters were headlining, both bringing rare German dates. The whole weekend actually mattered.

Berlin always had plenty of music options, but stepping out of the city into this space felt different. By Sunday I was already thinking about next year.