A few years ago, events featuring Latin American music and artists in Berlin were scarce; those interested in the genres could only find a few specific parties or special nights at certain clubs. Today, artists like Vicente García, J Balvin and Los Mirlos play here, and Colombian pop reggaeton superstar and Grammy Award-winner Karol G sells out Uber Arena.
Propelled by the momentum of international recognition, the city has become more welcoming to the influences of its Latin American population. These rhythms are now so widespread that reggaeton, psychedelic cumbia, salsa, Latin pop, guaracha, neo-perreo and baile funk can be heard popping out of bars, clubs and even fitness studios. We’ve scoured the scene for Berlin’s best bets – don’t skip these beats.
Furiosa
Pop on lock
Furiosa, a monthly party of Latin and international pop and reggaeton at Kreuzberg’s Lido, began in 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a party celebrating the queer football team that creator Javier Capuano was part of. Capuano moved to Berlin in 2021, and brought the concept with him. “Queer audiences didn’t have a Latin music option for partying more than something that was very intertwined with techno. So the proposal of Furiosa was innovative in Berlin,” he says.
Everyone is included, especially in Furiosa.
Together with his business partner, Cesar Cuculic, Capuano organises parties featuring different types of Latin music. “One of the things that I feel prouder about being Latinx is that we’re very inclusive, in the sense that we go out dancing in a big group and everybody is allowed to bring their friends, even if they’re not Latinx. Everyone is included, especially in Furiosa, because we have international pop – so international people, non-Spanish-speaking people, can sing along,” Capuano says.
Such broad appeal is what he likes best about Furiosa, he says. “[It’s] not exclusively queer people, but people with different gender identities and ways of living their sexuality … these people are all united through dancing as a way of celebrating their friendship.” Along with the monthly event at Lido, the pair organise a FLINTA* iteration of Furiosa a few times a year. “The atmosphere that is generated at these parties is something I’ve never seen before and I love it,” says Capuano. It’s also “a political stand, because we’re opening a space this part of the queer community doesn’t normally have”.
- Follow Furiosa on Instagram to find out about their upcoming events.
Yoggaton
Stretch and sweat
Yoggaton is a truly extraordinary sports practice, one that revels in contradiction: good and bad, saint and whore, hedonism and spirituality. Its practice, like its name, is a mixture of perreo – a dance style associated with reggaeton – and yoga. It’s an unexpected offering, since yoga is spiritual and commonly practised silently or with calm tunes only, and perreo is usually perceived as all movement, no mindfulness or deeper meaning, and found in clubs.
The body doesn’t understand these dichotomies, it just moves.
The project started eight years ago, when founder Maque Pereyra, a dancer, DJ and performer, was doing the Solo/Dance/Authorship Master’s at Berlin’s Inter-University Centre for Dance. “I had these contrasting ideas and practices in my body: yoga, ballet, contemporary dance, and the perreo I got from partying,” she says. “I wanted to make them face each other through [one] practice – because the body doesn’t understand these dichotomies, it just moves.”
Classes are open to “everyone who feels called upon by them”, Maque says. Yoggaton has a particularly big FLINTA* audience, due to its connection with feminism. “Feminist theory and practice are present in Yoggaton. Lots of Latinx migrants grew up Catholic and the world is mainly conservative, both of which promote the idea that the body is sinful and we need to separate ourselves from it. I want to build a loveful and feminist relationship with our bodies through this space.”
- Classes every Tuesday at 20:00 at Flow Motion Studio, Neukölln. Follow Yoggaton on Instagram or visit their website to find out more.
La Regla
Legendary Latin
The self-described “spicy grandma of Latin parties in Berlín” lives up to the title, having been around since 1999. La Regla started as a “Latin party against the ‘Latin-lover-kind-of-parties’ cliché”, says Paul Welch Guerra, one of the organisers. “There was a crowd of Latin American migrants who didn’t see their musical identity in the party scene at the time, and La Regla wanted to change that.”
There is a young migrant community eager to do new things.
The first parties were of “Latin rock and something more”, and the series has since evolved to host Caribbean rhythms like salsa and cumbia. With a 25-year history, La Regla has claimed a spot in Berlin’s nightlife: “We have a faithful and stable audience,” he says, describing an audience of Spanish speakers, Caribbean natives and backpackers who fell in love with the music during travels, among others. “There is a young migrant community eager to do new things.”
La Regla says it’s open to everyone, “even those who can’t dance but love the rhythms”. With the boom of Latin music events, Guerra, a longtime figure in the scene, sees new richness. “We don’t see La Regla as a business but as an opportunity to build community, so other parties are not competition,” he says. “It’s a meeting point for other promoters and party organisers, so you truly feel within a community.”
- Follow on Instagram to find out about their upcoming events.
Puticlub
Safe to dance
This queer Latinx party started in September 2019, created by DJ Isa GT and her friends. Every two months, Puticlub offers a platform for Latinx queer talent, with special musical guests performing each time. There’s a particular focus on being safe. “Everybody [is] welcome BUT ZERO TOLERANCE TO: Sexism, Homophobia, Transphobia, Femmephobia, Racism, Ableism, Classism, Harassment,” their party announcements read. Isa GT attributes this attitude to the music: “Perreo is a communal experience, you need to look into the eyes of the person you want to dance with and ask for consent. There is an exchange that creates a safe atmosphere.”
The day we’re not having fun with Puticlub, it won’t make sense to do it anymore.
Since its first party at ACUD MACHT NEU, Puticlub has spread widely. Last year, resident DJs Linapary, Pvssydivx and Isa GT played at WHOLE, and for this year’s edition Isa curated the complete programme of the queer music festival’s Crane Stage. The series’ growth comes from the devoted community they’ve tapped into, Isa GT says. “People that came loved the vibe and next time brought more friends. That’s how we built a loyal audience that has stayed with us and always comes.” Isa sees the future of Puticlub clearly: “The day we’re not having fun with Puticlub, it won’t make sense to do it anymore.” But for now, fun is guaranteed at each edition.
- Follow Puticlub on Instagram to find out about their upcoming events.
Pa’l suelo
Femmes and floor
When Chilean actress and dancer Lorena Valdenegro, founder of AQUItheater Berlin, offered a perreo and ‘sexy floorwork’ class to a group at a birthday, it was only supposed to be a one-time thank-you gift to a friend for translating some parts of a theatre piece into German. But the friends connected immediately with the class, and the momentum led to the launch of Pa’l suelo, a recurring class combining contemporary floorwork and reggaeton.
Pa’l suelo, held at the a compás studio in Kreuzberg, wants to be a place to explore and enjoy one’s body at the same time. “This space aims to work in body acceptance, explore, re-appropriate, and de-objectify sensuality, since it’s always associated with something offered to others,” Valdenegro says. “But in this case, we want it to be: ‘I choose to be sensual and I choose when and how’.” The classes are open to all FLINTA* people regardless of nationality and offered in a mix of Spanish and German.
The idea is not that we dance the same, but each person makes the choreo and the dance theirs.
Like Yoggaton, there is a feminist perspective essential to the classes, which is achieved by choosing songs from women artists. “I want lyrics that are gentle, non-vulgar with women and that empower them. If there are sexist moments in the lyrics, I change their meaning through acting and interpretation. I introduce movements that say ‘I’m not in favour of this’ or ‘what is being said doesn’t interest me’.”
The goal of the classes is for participants to reclaim their sensuality. “It has to do mostly with encouraging the connection with one’s own body and dances. I always offer movement variants in case something is more difficult or easier for someone … There is a very clear dance technique that allows itself to be adapted to each person’s body,” Valdenegro says. “The idea is not that we dance the same, but each person makes the choreo and the dance theirs.”
- Follow AQUItheatre Berlin on Instagram to find out about their upcoming events.
Entre Trópicos
Decolonised rhythms
The cultural initiative Entre Trópicos was born of a long journey by curator and director Alejandro Tafurth. In 2022, on a trip to his home country of Colombia, Tafurth realised there was a broken bridge between some of the Latinx musicians touring around Europe who never arrived in Berlin. “Clubs in Berlin rejected Latin American music because they only had the exotic and caliente idea of these rhythms,” Tafurth says. “But I knew there was much more to offer. Music I [knew] from the memories of my family’s parties.”
Music helps me channel loneliness and the nostalgia of being far away from home.
He founded Entre Trópicos to be a meeting point for Latinx communities and a way to change public perception of tropical music and rhythms. “We have musical genius in Latin America which is missing [appreciation],” he says. Entre Trópicos (“between the tropics”) provides a platform for music from countries between tropical lines, via concerts and festivals. “My idea is to generate spaces in which all these communities can converge around music and culture.”
Kreuzberg’s SO36 houses all their events, which aim to “fight through culture the existing blockages and decolonise the view on tropical music”. Tafurth also says that Entre Trópicos has become a place where Berlin’s migrant community can find solace. “Music helps me channel loneliness and the nostalgia of being far away from home,” he says, “and that’s the fuel for doing this.”
- Follow Entre Trópicos on Instagram to find out about their upcoming events.
