We think our place in the scene has a way more intimate approach. During a time when the electronic music scene was growing very fast and in many ways losing and forgetting some of the values and principles in which rave culture was initially founded, we thought it was important to organize an event where we could talk about these things again. We strive to make a party for the Berlin queer community focusing really on maintaining the spirit of the underground and making it as inclusive as possible. 

Music wise we try to always challenge ourselves in relation to what is going on in the scene. The starting point music wise for us, came from an inspiration of an old school, faster funky sound of Techno, but with time, we have found determinant to push this further. 

We work to incorporate other genres that represent a similar vocabulary but bring other nuances, as we also understood the importance of creating a connection between the underground queer scene and some genres that might have not existed before.

How do we make this conversation move forward? It starts with the line ups where we try to have a wide and diverse booking profiles, but also the energy created together with the crowd, which we consider is a result of all the other decisions about diversity, inclusion, keeping it intimate, with familiar faces, with a big base on friendship and a community building desire that’s always present and through small actions of activism. We want the people to feel a deep/close connection with each other and the music, while still being reflective of our time and what is happening beyond the gates of our party or the Techno scene.

You can see Berlin’s queer community and beyond getting together in pure positive vibes, celebrating each others differences and giving space to individual freedom. It’s a queer celebration in all its layers, meaning you’ll see all colors, shapes, identities, genders or non, sexual orientations, it‘s fem and masculine, rough from the underground vibe which is very important to us but still positive, uplifting and welcoming. One thing for sure, at Mala Junta you’ll see a diverse crowd dancing non stop and sweating it all, It’s kind of a back to basics situation, back to the spirit of the old school raves.

Musically, You can hear everything from Techno to more House influences to Breaks, Electro, Goa and Psy trance with surprises in between, there’s even been reminiscences of Trap and Bonnie Tyler was once even played! As mentioned before, we are always trying to stay in motion and merge influences in order to bring something new to the table.

Akua - LSDXOXO - Mohajer - Peachlyfe - Ezy - Nkisii - Arca - Fireboy DML - Lasse Vind - Ute Records - Auspex

We feel music and especially electronic music is hardly challenged at the moment. You can tell that the whole scene is confused and trying to find ways to carry on while not being able to get together. Physical proximity is something we love and a big part of the Mala Junta atmosphere. The energy, the connection, the bonding experiences you get from being a lot of people dancing hard and together in a small space, is not possible to accomplish any other way, as we know, these encounters are not possible at all at the moment with the situation, of course the people’s health & safety is the most important and primordial. 

Different parties and collectives try to find a new normal to keep this connection and to give these exciting feelings to people, people try in different ways to keep on doing something to stay relevant, current and important, some ways more beautiful than others. 

We are entering a new era which will shake up a lot of the things we were used to, but we feel some exciting things will come out of this. People will need to get out of their comfort zone and change things that were not necessarily working, but it is hard to predict what exactly will come out of this and how it will affect us.

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Photo by Bernardo Martins