Diversity, Vogueing and Upcycling | Main Highlights at The Ground

After two years of pandemic, the desire for cultural festivals sets the pulse of the summer. On 7 July, The Ground Festival opened its doors for the first time in Berlin to unite the community that is changing the rules of the game. We are talking about free-minded people, people who don't need to identify with any gender to consider themselves people, people in love with extravagant style and upcycling as a new way of understanding fashion, people concerned about the future of the planet and who fight for the human rights of communities that are still, in this 21st century, marginalised. All of them, as well as many curious people, gathered last weekend at The Ground to celebrate diversity, music and culture, learning through different conferences and workshops organized by Premium Exhibitions.

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The highlight of the festival was undoubtedly the larger than life ball by The House of Gorgeous Gucci, a very long catwalk to see the latest in vogueing.

NOT TO BE BORED

The exhibition located in Messe Berlin's Palais was an invitation to get lost in the fun. The inclusive, diverse and sustainable platform Platte celebrated workshops to customise fashion products or to make candles in all colours in the shape of penises or vaginas thanks to a collaboration with the queer candle makers from Berlin, That Gay Creation, spreading joy, sex positivity and inclusiveness.

At the Hydrafacial area there was a long queue. They call themselves "the No. 1 treatment for skin rejuvenation and skin improvement with an immediate effect". That is what the fashion generation may be fervently looking for. The Yousthetics space was also almost complete. There you could book an intravenous treatment to highlight your "natural beauty" with recovery & vitamin infusion, anti-aging IV or booster shots.

Among the sustainable fashion brands present at the event, we liked the impossible garments of Haram With Sugar, which with a pair of sneakers makes a marvellous corset; the thousand and one interpretations of fashion by Therapy Berlin through upcycling; and DryKorn, which boasted at The Ground its #nofakes campaign. "Upload your ID-Image to get a custom DRYKORN Shirt to flex with your face". What a great idea! Because there is nothing more real than our ID photo, against the fake happy and perfect images on social media. An ode to reality.

Vinokilo not only offered a full-fledged vintage market with retro dresses, crazy shirts and vintage blouses. It also offered the possibility to personalise totem bags and to donate the full price to an organisation that helps mothers in Kenya to have their children with the necessary sanitary measures. According to what we were told, "we have sold quite a lot and that is very positive with a view to repeating the next edition".

However, the highlight of the festival was undoubtedly the larger than life ball by The House of Gorgeous Gucci, a very long catwalk to see the latest in vogueing. Also interesting was the Dance Show Act Powered by Red Bull, a competition we didn't want to miss.

“It's been quite a rodeo ride putting together two B2B trade shows, one D2C festival, three conferences, parties, dinners and receptions for so many different audiences and all while the pandemic continues in full swing – barring the rain and flight chaos. I would have wished that even more visitors would have come, but overall the restart was much better than expected. It was definitely an announcement." - Anita Tillmann, Managing Partner Premium Group.

GENDERLESS, METAVERSE AND DRUG LEGALIZATION

Genderless, Metaverse and Drug Legalization were some of the topics we were able to explore at the conferences held during the festival. We learned how to blow a vagina owner's mind and how culture and expectation has shaped our perspective of happiness. Also, interesting were the talks about how political is fashion, fashion in the Metaverse and NFT Digital Art. We also heard experiences that help answer questions such as, "from challenging monogamy to your first sex party" by Julian Being.

The rest is history. History of today's society that we hope will be repeated next summer in a new edition of The Ground in Berlin.