Saturday May 24
Return to the Source — Day 1
Tresor 313
10pm - 10am

Ballroom
Clarisa Kimskii
Kerrie (live)
Neel
Shawescape Renegade
Surgeon

Gallery
Cybotron (live)
livwutang
Mark Ernestus
Max Watts
Objekt

Garden
Daniel Bell (sunrise set)

Return to the Source — Day 1

From Dimitri Hegemann:

Greetings to everyone in Detroit from Berlin: the artists, DJs, festival organizers, bar runners, cleaning staff. I hope everyone has a great week meeting and exchanging ideas, and supporting each other in 2025.

When Tresor started in Berlin in 1991, we knew the music was important. Detroit gave us a great gift in techno, which quickly became the soundtrack of Berlin as the Berlin Wall fell and people from the East and West partied together. Detroit Techno gave us what we needed, and in a few years we saw how this music and clubs transformed the city. 
Clubs are good for the city: they provide jobs, they bring tourists, they give young people something to do and made Berlin a destination for young people from all over the world. The nighttime economy boomed, and brought some much needed money into the city: today clubs and nightlife contribute 1.5 billion dollars per year to Berlin’s economy. Taxi drivers, restaurants, airlines, hotels, bars, and clubs all benefit directly from vibrant nightlife. 

In Berlin, clubs and techno became a marketing tool: our museums have exhibitions on the music, spaces, and people. Berlin is a techno city, even getting Unesco Cultural Heritage status, attracting people, business and culture that has transformed the divided city. 

But what we only recently noticed is that something else has been going on since 1991. When Tresor opened its doors, we thought we’d have some parties, perhaps get the right permits and a longer rental lease. Eventually we noticed that the city was changing and techno was part of it. But only recently did we realize that something wonderful was happening: the social fabric of cities benefits from clubs and club cultures. Clubs help strengthen democratic values and the social fabric of society. When people of different backgrounds, from different places, with different jobs come together and have fun, they are engaging in democratic values. Diversity, mutual respect, collective rights, and the power of peaceful collaborations are experienced on the dancefloor when the ego melts and people enjoy being together. 

Today the Tresor Foundation is working on this topic. Young people benefit from clubs, cities and economies benefit from clubs, but also democracies benefit from clubs. When extremist right wing ideas stir hatred, we need more spaces that allow us to strengthen our democracies: we need spaces where young people can gather, share their lives, and enjoy diversity, collaboration, differences, and participating in their communities. 

Now for a tiny dose of bad news: in Germany, 2024 was a year with the highest number of bankruptcies in a long time, something that we saw in the club world too. We lost a few important clubs in 2024, and will sadly lose a couple more in 2025. We need to show the world that clubs are important, that we need them now more than ever. We are happy that in Berlin there are still plenty of clubs that act as hubs for strengthening the social fabric. If they have good curation, booking, are good to the workers and treat them fairly, they can make big changes. 

Tresor has its own non-profit, the Tresor Foundation Berlin, and we work with young people who want to start their own clubs, helping them get started, support their ideas, give them training and answer questions. The Academy of Subcultural Understanding wants more clubs, because they are good for our democracies. We learned our lessons from techno and Detroit and now there are some lessons to learn from Berlin.

Berlin was unique in some ways, with the divided city, lots of space, young crazy and motivated people. But of course, many of these things can happen anywhere. Every city needs clubs, even the smaller ones, because everyone needs spaces where they can enjoy each other, get out of their houses and offices and experience peaceful ways of collaborating and hearing good music, moving their bodies. We need clubs now more than ever, in Detroit, in Berlin, and in the smaller cities. If we have clubs in every city, in every district, we’ll have young people that learn about democratic values and enjoy life together. So if we have this, and all these clubs, why not world peace? It looks impossible, but let’s go for it anyway. The impossible is a great place to start!  

– Dimitri Hegemann, Berlin

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Return to the Source 2025 is an organic evolution of the original concept, with careful attention to detail put in at every level. Our weekend at the Tangent includes 4 parties for the price of one weekend wristband, with an outdoor area containing a harm reduction zone, food truck, and an incredible outdoor sound system. Once the music starts at No Way Back on Sunday night, it won't end until Tuesday morning — 32 hours of continuous music. A weekend wristband will allow you to experience this ever changing environment with no interruptions. The Benefactor weekend wristband is simply a donation tier, to support the continuation of events like these, and does not grant any more benefits than a regular weekend wristband. 

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PSA: Do not purchase tickets outside of Resident Advisor. People selling tickets as PDFs, screenshots, etc are often trying to scam you. Invalid tickets can not be honored at the door. The only way to know that you have purchased a valid ticket is to buy it directly from the RA web site or app. If you have a ticket you can not use, you can sell it through RA's resale queue.

21+ with ID