Berlin Review: Laboratory Athletes Sportswear & Sneaker

I've been to a Laboratory Athletes Sportswear & Sneaker party twice before - this time there are a few things that were a bit different - maybe because it is Easter weekend, and maybe it's just progress.

For those that don't know Laboratory, it is set in the basement of an old power station. It's huge and labyrinth like. Just to walk around all the areas takes a good twenty minutes to half an hour and I kept finding bits I hadn't yet explored throughout the night. Since I was there last it seems to have doubled it size  and the newer half features another bar area, a zone with a sand covered floor, more mazes and a scaffold structure with ladders and platforms (reminiscent of Chuckie Egg) as well as a mezzanine floor and more slings and paraphernalia than you can imagine under one roof.

The upstairs is divided into two and houses the Berghain night club, and a concert hall is being constructed in the other half.

I arrived early at about ten past four and was number 53 - we saw numbers going up to 480ish so I guess there were just shy of 500 guys there.

The crowd was a little different to what I have seen there in previous times - I was expecting guys in serious sports gear, like ice hockey, american football, motocross gear etc. This time there was none of that - it was mostly topless guys in shorts and trainers. A few were dressed in footy kit or 'scally' gear but probably less than 50%.  One of my friends from Berlin says that its always the same people that go to Laboratory - just in different costumes depending on the night. I think he's right.

Having been to the previous sneaker and sports parties in the week, it was possible to recognise faces in the crowd and target like-minded individuals as most guys were interested in fucking and that's all.

The 2-4-1 drinks offer was a good thing. I was offered a number of free drinks buy guys who were given two beers and didn't want to carry the free one around. The whole night cost me 13.00 euros for drinks plus 8 euros entry - a bargain considering how much beer and Jagermeiser was consumed!