Today we have to address you with some sad news: Despite its successful premiere, Tempelhof Sounds will take a break in 2023 before taking place again in 2024. Even though this decision makes us incredibly sad, it was just as right for us as it was without alternative, as we would like to explain to you briefly below. 

Tempelhof Airport provided a great stage and impressive backdrop for us and our guests this year.  Now, in the face of the ongoing inhumane war in Ukraine, it is once again providing much needed shelter for refugees. The recent decision by the Berlin Senate to increase the number of emergency shelters means that, in addition to a change in the spatial layout for the placement and design of the festival grounds, there are also new requirements for noise protection, which of course applies to these people just as it does to all other residents. For us, this means that a successful approval process for our festival is unfortunately impossible under these new circumstances. 

Apart from that, we also consider it humanly imperative to show consideration in this exceptional situation to ensure that people who need refuge are not adversely affected under any circumstances. Instead, we wish that in 2024 we will come together under better circumstances to celebrate music and peace together. We look forward to starting planning for this very soon.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for the warm-heartedness and openness that we experienced from all sides in Berlin. We are pleased that our partners support this decision as well as the continuation of our festival in the future. From the very beginning, we have focused on sustainability in the planning of Tempelhof Sounds – and real sustainability also has a social component that makes this difficult decision without alternative for us.