You might remember Dazed Club’s open call for videographers issued earlier this year, to capture a trio of celebrations across the globe for Spotify’s Skate Noise – a platform focused on the sounds of skate culture and its communities. Already, we’ve seen Francesco Mbele document a unique event in Johannesburg, and Léo Mazzoni capture candid clips during La Fête de la Musique in Paris. Now, it’s Berlin’s turn.

This week, Skate Noise hit the German capital via the CPH Open. Beginning in Copenhagen, the CPH Open has grown into one of the biggest international skateboarding events, which brings a range of communities together in one place – this time, the Berlin-based skate hub Civilist. 

If you don’t know Civilist already, it’s a skate shop, occasional gallery, and diverse hangout spot in the centre of the city. It’s also “deeply connected with the DJ and music world,” notes Spotify, which selected the iconic institution to curate its Skate Noise Berlin playlist, launched earlier this month. True to form, the playlist itself spans a variety of artists and genres, incorporating and expanding upon popular tracks from the local skate community.

In person – at this year’s CPH Open, followed by a special Spotify x Civilist afterparty – things were no different. Luckily, we had videographer and Dazed Clubber Eric Lau on hand to capture everything that went down.

THE GLOBAL SKATE COMMUNITY CAME TOGETHER

The CPH Open is a major event for the world’s skateboarding elite, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Skate Noise Berlin celebrations were packed out with skaters and skate fans alike. On September 25, things kicked off at Civilist, before rolling on through Berlin Mitte and heading to Friedrichshain, for a ‘Tricks for Cash’ competition.

THERE WAS A STACKED MUSICAL LINEUP

The musical element of the celebrations came courtesy of a stellar roster of musicians, both local and international. Berlin’s own MCR-T was joined on the line-up by Norway’s MRD and the Spanish-born, Germany-based Hello Sasy. Things didn’t end there, though, with Spotify and Civilist hosting an after party to keep people dancing deep into the night (or, more accurately, the next morning).

CIVILIST WAS AT THE HEART OF IT ALL

Besides hosting the event, Civilist collaborated with Spotify on exclusive merch, and curated the all-important playlist, coordinating with local artists like MCR-T, Keinemusik, and Nina Hagen. “Skateboarding is a central part of global pop culture and combines aspects of fashion, art, sport and music in a unique way,” says Heiner Kuhlmann, marketing director at Spotify DACH, highlighting the partnership with Civilist. “[It] was a great inspiration for us and gave us a lot of pleasure.”

WATCH DAZED’S FILM

LISTEN TO THE SKATE NOISE BERLIN PLAYLIST

The Berlin iteration of Spotify’s Skate Noise playlists is already available to listen to (below). The 50-track playlist spans multiple genres, including house, rock, hip-hop and Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave). After Civilist’s takeover, it will hand over the curation baton to various players in the local skate scene.