Why clubs like Berlin's Berghain and Tresor, London's fabric and Tbilisi's Bassiani put a sticker over your phone camera – privacy for dancers and DJs, no distraction – and how some concerts lock phones in pouches instead.
Clubs sticker your camera for privacy and focus – film anyway and you can be out.
Facts
- Berghain (Berlin, opened 2004) bans photos and video inside. In 2009 the writer Tobias Rapp described the club as a sealed-off shelter where dancers can let go, one that “doesn’t want to find any picture of itself in the outside world”. Despite the ban, #berghain had nearly 12,000 Instagram posts by February 2014 (Rolling Stone).
- By October 2014 Berghain’s door was putting a sticker over guests’ phone cameras; Berlin’s B.Z. reported then that the sticker was checked again on the way out and that anyone taking a selfie risked a ban. In 2020, when the closed club hosted the art show “Studio Berlin” (115 artists), visitors still had to sticker their lenses – “including The New York Times”.
- Clubs give the reasons themselves: Tresor (Berlin) – “Strictly no filming or photos inside the club. Any guest found to be doing so will be removed… respect other guests right to privacy”; Renate (Berlin) – “privacy, freedom, and immersion”; Institut fuer Zukunft (Leipzig) – “the privacy of our guests and venue”.
- London’s fabric (opened 1999) brought in its first official No Photo Policy in June 2021: no photos “gives privacy to fellow punters and to the artist playing” and “removes the distraction”. Today stickers go on phone cameras at entry and rule-breakers may be removed; the club’s own photographers shoot only approved footage of the DJs and silhouetted crowds.
- In Tbilisi, Bassiani bans photography and its bouncers place stickers over phone camera lenses at the entrance; the club also vets guests for its LGBT night, Horoom, to minimise the threat of homophobic aggression (The New York Times, 2019).
- Concerts use locked pouches instead: Yondr, founded in 2014 by Graham Dugoni in San Francisco, seals your phone in a pouch you keep until you leave. Dave Chappelle used them on a 2015 tour, Jack White toured the UK phone-free in 2022, and Bob Dylan announced pouches at every venue of his 2024 UK tour. Damon Albarn disagreed: “If you start banning things where does it end?”
Sources
- Tagesspiegel: Die neuen Tempel des Techno – interview with Tobias Rapp (2 March 2009) · Tagesspiegel checked 9 October 2026
- Mixmag: The hard cell – should phones be allowed in clubs? (Izzy Hargreaves, 24 March 2016) · Mixmag checked 9 October 2026
- The New Yorker: Berlin nights (Nick Paumgarten, issue of 24 March 2014) · The New Yorker checked 9 October 2026
- Rolling Stone: Berghain – the secretive, sex-fueled world of techno's coolest club (Thomas Rogers, 6 February 2014) · Rolling Stone checked 9 October 2026
- B.Z.: Blog macht sich über Foto-Verbot im Berghain lustig (Janina Bembenek, 26 October 2014; archived copy) · B.Z. checked 9 October 2026
- Wikipedia (German): Berghain · Wikipedia checked 9 October 2026
- Wikipedia: Berghain · Wikipedia checked 9 October 2026
- Tresor Berlin: Guest information – No photos or filming · Tresor Berlin checked 9 October 2026
- Renate (Berlin): Club information – 7. Security policies · Renate checked 9 October 2026
- Institut fuer Zukunft (Leipzig): Safer clubbing · Institut fuer Zukunft checked 9 October 2026
- fabric London: No photo policy · fabric checked 9 October 2026
- fabric London: FAQ · fabric checked 9 October 2026
- The New York Times: At this techno club, the party is political (Carmen Gray, 29 May 2019) · The New York Times checked 9 October 2026
- The New York Times: While Berghain is closed, there's art on the dance floor (Kimberly Bradley, 4 September 2020) · The New York Times checked 9 October 2026
- BBC News: Damon Albarn disagrees with Bob Dylan over mobile phone gig ban (Colin Paterson, 19 July 2024) · BBC checked 9 October 2026
- NME: Jack White's phone-free gig at the Hammersmith Apollo (Mark Beaumont, 4 July 2022) · NME checked 9 October 2026
- Yondr: About · Yondr checked 9 October 2026
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Script
Why do clubs put a sticker on your camera? Berlin's Berghain banned photos long ago. Yet by early 2014, #berghain had nearly 12,000 Instagram posts. By that October, the door was putting stickers over phone cameras. The clubs' own reasons: privacy for dancers and DJs, and no distraction. Film anyway, and you can be thrown out. London's fabric went no-photo in 2021. Now it stickers phones at the door. Some concerts lock phones in pouches. At one Jack White show, a critic wrote: “Instead of screens in the air, there were hands.” In 2020, with clubs shut, Berghain became an art gallery. The stickers stayed on – even for The New York Times.
Sources last checked 9 October 2026.