Why clubbers are raving about Germany’s cross-country Techno Train
07.05.2024 - 10:33
/ theguardian.com
‘Do you ever get seasick?” Timm Schirmer, a 27-year-old DJ with a fabulous blond moustache, asks me shortly before we board the Techno Train. “When you’re dancing on the train it can feel like you’re at sea, because you can’t always see that you’re moving.” Worryingly, I have indeed spent many a past holiday retching on boats. But Timm’s question comes after I’ve paid €100 for a non-refundable ticket for what social media suggests is the most intense train ride in Europe. I knew it wouldn’t be plain sailing.
Launched in 2019 by the Nuremberg nightclub Haus 33, for whom Tim DJs, the Techno Train runs twice a year and has only two official stops: the start and the finish. We depart Nuremberg’s Frankenstadion station at 4pm and travel about 100km west towards the city of Würzburg, then loop back and pull into Nuremberg Central Station at 11pm.
The train has 12 carriages, three of which become dance rooms with DJ decks, speakers and bars. About 25 DJs perform on our trundle through the Bavarian countryside.
About 700 tickets are available for each journey, selling out in seconds despite the train having no marketing beyond social media. But even so, Tim says, “You can’t get rich from this. Permission to go on the tracks is expensive. We’re lucky to have hype on Instagram and TikTok … when you don’t have this, you’re going bankrupt.”
As I join the queue outside Frankenstadion station, a woman with a pram scrabbles for her phone to film the mainly black-clad, frequently half-naked ticket-holders. Before I’m allowed on board, a stocky bouncer rummages through my backpack – luckily, he has no problem with me being the only passenger who’s brought a book.
Transport rules dictate that there be at least one seat per passenger, and I find a spot in the chill-out area. It’s one of the few carriages that doesn’t have speakers strapped to its ceiling, and that you can’t smoke in. I chat with Vincent, a smiley 22-year-old with a shaved head and mirrored sunglasses, who says he’s part of Nuremberg’s techno scene. I ask for advice as a 40-year-old Techno Train virgin. “Don’t stay in one place – travel up and down the train,” Vincent says. His friend Benedict, deep-voiced and lightly bearded, adds: “Use the toilets early. They get … unpleasant.”
By 4.30pm, DJ Es.Ka has started his set in the dance carriage nearest me. Panels are pulled over windows and a fog machine fills the room with red mist and school disco scent. Shirtless gents with six packs dance on ledges, and a skinny man who looks like Bad Education actor Layton Williams wafts a huge black hand fan around. The oversized fan isn’t an affectation: it’s a hot afternoon even before you dance in a jam-packed carriage.
The music is gospel-tinged and euphoric, far