TFELD. A Berlin Built from Replicas

On the front of the DJ booth, TFELD is spelt out in white block capitals on a splash of red. On the screen behind, the name southstar melts across the frame, and higher up, in old lettering on the building, it says "Platz der Luftbrücke". The first TFELD, held on the apron at Tempelhof on 22 August 2026, is a festival built from replicas and quotations. The site handles all that with ease, though after this edition the festival itself has yet to find a face of its own.

The apron is one of the few places in Berlin where the sky does not stop at a rooftop. Thick banks of cloud crossed it through the day, with the sun breaking through between them. Nine hours of programming ran from 1pm to 10pm, then carried on in the hangar until 6am. The organiser had announced the event on 15 May under the motto "Das ist Berlin" ("This is Berlin"), expecting up to 25,000 visitors.

The motto is taken literally. Four stages were split between hip-hop and electronic music, plus two underground stages whose builds openly borrowed from the Backyard Stage at splash! and the Autoscooter Stage at MELT. For the aftershow in the hangar, the Watergate club had reportedly been rebuilt in detail. Above one stage glows the green lettering ZENTRUM KREUZBERG with yellow arrows, a CASINO 36 sign beside it and white plastic chairs on the stage itself. On the tarmac lies a huge inflatable sphere with a red-and-white striped stump that recalls the Fernsehturm, the TV tower, tipped over like a toy. The copies are made with wit. But every one of them points to a place or a festival that already exists, so Berlin, here, comes down to whatever can be rebuilt.

The official line-up listed 28 names, counting the unannounced secret headliner: Paul Kalkbrenner live, Ellen Allien, Marlon Hoffstadt, Pashanim, AK Ausserkontrolle, Baby B3ns, southstar, Lucio101 & Nizi19 and others. Four of them played only after the stage programme had ended, at the aftershow in the hangar. In the afternoon the crowd in front of the Kreuzberg stage is packed up to the barriers, a paramedic in an ASB vest waits at the edge, and the screen shows a man with a microphone in close-up. Later, three silhouettes stand in smoke against red light and the phones go up. Any large festival produces pictures like these. Here they only stand out because the hangar and the airport building are in the background.

Around the music sat a side programme that took up more ground than the stages: a fairground in the style of Hasenheide park, a basketball court, flea market stalls, oversized replicas of Berlin landmarks, all spread across a site that swallows such things easily. According to the press release, accessibility is central to the concept, on the grounds that culture should not be a privilege.

At the edge of the site a historic Troop Carrier propeller plane stands behind barriers, silver with a red trim line and yellow-tipped propellers. Someone has sprayed PARADE on it in large letters. The organiser argues that hip-hop and techno found their way to Berlin through this airport. In the afternoon light that did make a picture, with the aircraft, people in streetwear heading past it to the next stage, and the inflatable sphere and the first bass lines behind. A long fence covered in graffiti runs along the apron towards the airport building and its tower. After a single edition, there is no telling whether the place really supports the story or whether the story needs the place.

The fairground worked, at any rate, and the apron takes crowds better than any indoor venue. At the blue hour the screen glowed pink above the crowd. The strongest thing at TFELD was the site itself, stronger than any of the copies on it, and a second edition could trust it more.

TFELD was on the apron at Tempelhof, Berlin, on 22 August 2026, from 1pm to 10pm, with the aftershow in the hangar until 6am.