Music + Friends + Good time + Fun = Festival!

According to Max (from Happy Endings) “Hipster rule number 3: Never show too much enthusiasm.” All right, we all know I’m no hipster but at least… let’s try to blend in so I thought I could vary the topic of the post for a change :)

Today I won’t talk about how hipster are supposed to be or what are the highlights of the culture. I won’t even talk about the history of the hipsters as Abba wants to cover that point in the next entry and as last time I talked about my “hipster-first time” today I will talk about my first festival. It is true that our BerlinHipsterFestival2012 is only an idea but that doesn’t mean we cannot dream about it!

Do you guys remember what was your first concert or music festival? I kind of do… I remember (more or less) when it was, I know for sure where it was or who organized it but I can’t remember who sang on it or even with who I went! I feel terrible… Well, I do remember ONE friend. (I’ll be back)

Ok, so I just exchange some messages with THE friend (thanks Rod) and just as I thought so he does remember some of the artist. As a matter of fact Anastasia was there. How could I have forgotten about dancing “not that kind”??? hehehe. We also talked about a Spanish (very commercial and probably one-hit-wonder) duo called Sonia y Selena. Their “hit” Yo quiero bailar is the kind of song that you love because it reminds you of your teens but you hate because all the other obvious reasons you will find after taking a look at this video:

Anyway… this first music festival was in 2001 in Madrid and we were 16. It was organized by a program called “World Dance Music” that belongs to the number-one-radio station in Spain (los 40 Principales) The tickets were free and even that was exciting. I used to live outside the city and of course, the radio station was at the very heart of Madrid. In addition the box-office where you could pick up tickets for free was open only until 5pm or 6pm and because the festival was sponsored by such a big station we decided to go the same day we heard about it immediately after school in order to make sure we got a ticket. And back in those days getting from where I used to live to Madrid city center wasn’t an easy task. Now we have the metro but back then it probably took us over an hour with many changes from bus to metro in between.

I also remember how my mom drove us to the venue (a huge park also outside from Madrid) and how patiently she picked us up once it was over. I also remember how we went about 3 or 4 hours before just to queue to get a “good spot” and then we decided that the first row was too crowed. Hehehe. I find really „funny“ that I am incapable of remembering the line-up or the friends I went with but I guess that is part of the magic of festivals. Times goes by and you just remember that you were there and you had a blast.

And now is the time for questions… What and when was your first festival? What do you think the ingredients of an awesome festival have to be? Which one is the one you will never forget about and why? By the way, if our Berlin Hipster Festival becomes a reality don’t forget to check out this website with all the info: http://berlinhipsterfestival2012.eu/

The Perfect Example of a Hipster

 As I mentioned in my previous blog spots, as well as in my comments, my mind is currently obsessed with the etymology of the word hipster and how it has entered into our collective mind and meant different things to different people at different times. And also looking at this change beyond just the mere word: has what we call a hipster today always existed? Interesting question. To understand how generally accepted connotations for words morph in the 4th dimension one need only think of the word ‘bad’. Michael Jackson’s song of the same name is the perfect example as it is generally understood, by children even, that by ‘bad’ he meant ‘good’, or something decidedly positive to aspire to.

In France they give the same connotation to the word ‘terrible’. A ‘terrible’ album in France is a 'great' album. A French friend of mine living in Berlin the word terrible in the French context when she speaks in English. I remember this one time when it to a misunderstanding with others (albeit not insurmountably so) not so clued up on French as the adulation in her tone of voice did not match the seemingly negative one-word-review of the concert we just witnessed.

It is my belief that the word hipster has also undergone such transformation. What I am currently less sure of is which way the wind has blown, as it were. What did it mean in the beginning? However, before going into the past of hipsterdom let’s begin by coming back to future. What does it mean to be a hipster now? I believe the video my co-conspirator Cat posted from Happy Endings is a great example. And also since a picture is worth a thousand words I have spotted a picture on buzzfeed of the arguably the most hipster dude you will ever (forever ever, forever ever?) come across. The hilarious caption says it all:

“Vintage threads, skinny jeans, a stack of vinyl at the ready, a portable turntable, oversized headphones, and a disinterested hipster girlfriend? That's it. Game over. He won.”

This is where we are today. In my next blog post I will go to where it all started… perhaps.

Hipster? WHAT?

I thought that before jumping into any kind of “analysis” of the hipster culture, what a “real” hipster is and what a hipster festival in Berlin should look like; I could share with the blogosphere how my “first time” with hipsters was. It is NOT what you think (people with a dirty mind) hehehe I mean the first time I heard the term “hipster”. Can you remember your first time?

Mine was in a series (Happy Endings) were one of the main characters (Penny) falls into a guy that happens to be a hipster. From other experiences I have noticed that when you use the word “hipster” it implies a negative meaning but this time it was up-to-the-viewer to make that judgment. The hipsters weren’t better or worst from the others, they were just different. So far that was a very good first time approach.

As I write about my hipster-first-time, different questions pop my mind: since when hipsters are called hipsters? Is this culture/tribe/movement new? What makes them different from other urban tribes? I’ll try to answer all of them with future entries but I am pretty sure that the hipsters have always been there! We just didn’t noticed or called them different. I am 100% sure that when I was “little” (and in Spain) they were called the modern-ones. And my boyfriend has assured me that in Germany they were called alternatives. As a matter of fact, today while talking with my sister (who is 21 and lives in Madrid) I told her about this new blog and the first thing she said was: “Hipster what?” from pictures in different social media I am aware that the hipsters are not complete strangers to the Spanish scene but maybe they are still not as popular as they might be here in Berlin. Hm… Is there a specific range for hipsters? Another good question for a future post ;)

While I do some research, I want to share with you an extract from the Happy Endings episode where I learnt about hipsters. I hope you enjoy it...

Introducing Myself (Abba)

It is only after reading my dear friend and partner in crime’s last post does it dawn on me that I never once introduced myself! How rude of me… tsk tsk. Perhaps that goes to show how immersed I am in the topic of hipsterdom, particularly as it concerns the city of Berlin. So without further ado here goes my wee introduction:

My name is Abba and I have been living in the uber-trendy and aforementioned city of Berlin for three and a half years now. As an expat here I have run into and befriended countless ‘hipsters’. Or in the very list I have encountered people that fit the stereotypical and ironic image that we have come to associate with the word hipster.

Very often these “hipsters” have come to be associated with the gentrification of Berlin. The same phenomenon that lead to a trend in left-wing anarchists burning the flash cars of those they viewed as encroaching on their home and driving prices sky high. Obviously this is not the fault of hipsters per se, or at least not solely.

To me the word hipster has become a meme to begs to be scratched because I feel like there are much larger factors at play here that demand closer inspection. Now I am not a hipster as I have never been referred to as one or classified myself as one. However I am pretty confident that there are a few things that I, my co-conspirator and even you can identify with.

Other aspects of hipsters will forever remain alien to me, but then again this perhaps of the journey to understanding where it is that I stand. As this blog progresses I hope for an understanding to develop in order to start work on a Berlin Hipster Festival 2012, or as we intend to brand it: berlinhipsterfestival2012. Yes with no spaces… just to be so with the times ;)

Introducing… The Hipster Intern!

Hi everybody, my name is Cat and I will be writing in this blog as often as possible although I am pretty sure I don’t fit with the description of a hipster. Hehe. Actually, I must confess that I have no idea about the Hipster world but… does it really matter? Everything is a learning progress, so this project was not going to be different! Abba (AKA theberlinhipsterfestival2012) might say that he doesn’t know anything about the hipster movement but trust me, I am way behind.

My lack of information about hipsters is such that I have decided to label myself as “the hipster intern”. In my defense, I have to say that I learn fast so hopefully with the research that I will do before every post I will become some sort of little expert and step-by-step we will all learn something new. Who knows… we might even get enough readers to engage in conversations! I have a lot of questions that probably have no easy answer so debates are very welcome :)

 I took this picture last summer during an open-air Festival.

Berlin is such a great venue…

I am really curios to see how this “hipster experiment” evolves and find out if with enough leverage we get the idea of having an awesome festival in a city as cool as Berlin moving!

If you are still reading, at this point you might be wondering “why me?” I mean… “why her?” Well, I have another question as an answer. Why not? I studied Public Relations and Corporate Communications and I love anything related. I also love to write, love to talk and even love to listen (yes, there is a lot of love in me. Hehe) and as an additional bonus... I love developing any kind of events so, of course, a hipster festival in Berlin sounds like an offer I couldn’t reject!

Hey Abba! What do you have in mind for the next entry? I was thinking that before we jump into “analyzing” the hipster… just like I did, you could give us a brief intro about yourself and your connection with the Berlin Hipster Festival 2012 project.

The begining of The Berlin Hipster Festival 2012 blog

Hello hipsters and hipster lovers (or not) out there.

With this first post we officially inaugurate our concerted efforts in analyzing, dissecting and understanding all things hipster-related. We must confess that the festival itself is still very nascent but it is our hope that through our research and with your help and contributions we can conceptualize the ideal festival and turn theory to practice by having an awesome time and a great party in the trendy city of Berlin.

According to many, Berlin is currently the de-facto hipster capital of the world. So naturally basing it here seems like the right fit. However the term hipster gets bandied about loosely and with so many connotations that not everyone who mentions the word hipster could possibly be inferring the same meaning. As such we shall also be delving deeper into the topic of hipsterdom and trying to define it.

We must admit to not being hipsters as the Twitterati and popular media seems to define them but more curious journalistic types that find the definition to be more blurry. After one look at it and it quickly becomes clear that a large number of people who would not consider themselves hipsters might very well be. One of the goals of this blog would be to provide a more substantial insight than a lot of the trivial, and sometimes vacuous, nature the subject of hipsters gets treated online.

 As for the nature of the festival it will be defined by our interaction with you. We hope you enjoy coming along with us for this journey in creating what will be a very fun event in a fun city.

Abba