Busy Hohenzollernring, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

The Rings


The fam­ous - no­tori­ous party mile

The Cologne "rings" are considered Cologne's most famous nightlife district, especially for guests from outside the city. The "Rings" cover the center of Cologne in a semicircle and are a hotspot for clubs, pubs and cafés, especially between the Barbarossaplatz and the Christophstraße. It's great fun to dilly-dally from one place to another and enjoy the boulevardish character of the streets. People love the variety of clubs and pubs. You can find student clubs as well as sophisticated scene discotheques, hits, hip hop and electro can be found door to door. Tuned and lowered cars make the engines howl and cruise around the streets while the party people follow the principle of "seeing and being seen". Especially between Rudolfplatz and Friesenstraße, there is always a big hurry-scurry until the early hours of the morning. This is were the hippest clubs for techno and house are situated and where celebrities and half-celebrities of the media landscape of Cologne meet to party.

Especially interesting for fans of pop history is the address Hohenzollernring 97. Cologne's "Studio 54", the Lovers Club, was located here in the 1970s. Later, the Rave Club took over the premises; Cologne's first techno club (even before Berlin’s UFO or Frankfurt’s Omen).

Further information:
Hohenzollernring, 50672 Cologne

Historic photograph of Scotch Club on Hohenzollernring, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

All Pop-Spots of Co­logne

The entrance of King Georg, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

King Georg

The over­di­men­sioned neon sign in­dic­ates a scruffy dive but leads the way to one of the city's hot­test elec­tro and live clubs.

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The streetview of Parallel Records, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Par­al­lel Re­cords

This is how it's sup­posed to be: Who­ever enters Par­al­lel with dis­tinct ideas, leaves with a tote bag full of find­ings.

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The Tsunami Club with its window front, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Tsunami Club

The "art house cinema among the clubs" is all about concept and sub­stance and less about dress code.

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The streetview of Lukastraße, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Ru­ine

The Ru­ine used to be Co­logne's first loc­a­tion for techno. Still today many il­leg­al raves are be­ing cel­eb­rated - mainly on the right side of the river.

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The streetview of the Loft entrance, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Loft

One of Europe's most sig­ni­fic­ant jazz clubs is a labor­at­ory for ex­cit­ing sounds between new mu­sic, jazz and clas­sic.

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The streetview towards the Sonic Ballroom, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Son­ic Ball­room

The rough Son­ic Ball­room duly gives room to cul­tiv­ated noise.

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Insight into the courtyard of Live Music Hall, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Live Mu­sic Hall

The Live Mu­sic Hall man­ages the bal­an­cing act between pop and met­al- party.

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Entrance gate of Heinz Gaul, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Heinz Gaul

The old ma­sonry with char­ac­ter in "Elec­tro-cul­ture-stile" unites elec­tro and hip-hop sounds in the hot neigh­bor­hood of Ehren­feld since 2012.

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The Underground before it was torn down, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

EX-Un­der­ground

There was a time when low rent and aban­doned in­dus­tri­al build­ings drew the at­ten­tion to wild minds who flour­ished this cul­tur­al bi­otope.

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The Helios light house in Cologne, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

He­lios Leucht­turm

Ehren­feld is all about the 44 meter high tower, even though there is noth­ing go­ing on in this in­dus­tri­al monu­ment.

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The view of CBE from the street, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Club Bahnhof Ehren­feld

Con­certs, parties, flea mar­kets, po­etry slams, ex­hib­i­tions or re­cord ex­changes. It's al­ways worth check­ing the pro­gram.

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The Stadtgarten ("City garden"), © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Stadtgarten/Stu­dio 672

With more than 400 events is the Stadtgarten one of the most vi­brant cul­tur­al spaces in Co­logne and the nuc­le­us of the c/o Pop.

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The streetview of the (former) Basement, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

EX-Base­ment

This base­ment-club is where the cru­cial en­counter between Wolfgang Nie­deck­en and Klaus "Ma­jor" Heuser took place. The out­come: BAP.

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The house wall of Kompakt, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Kom­pakt

Kom­pakt - as a la­bel, book­ing agency and re­cord store - is the epi­tome of the "Sound of Co­logne".

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Front of Hallmackenreuther, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Hall­mack­en­reuth­er

While cur­rently closed, the Hall­mack­en­reuth­er used to provide for the per­fect in­tro in­to a long night.

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The entrance to Six Pack, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Six Pack

Co­logne's biggest fridge: Long nights with hand­some bar­tenders, elec­tron­ic mu­sic and a light green wood­ruff schnaps called Flimm.

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Busy Hohenzollernring, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

The Rings

In the midst of roar­ing en­gines, stu­dent clubs, part-time celebrit­ies and memor­ies of the city's first techno club.

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The so called Bermuda triangle at Schaafenstraße, © Andreas Möltgen

Schaafen­straße

This is where the party mood of the LGB­TQ- com­munity col­lides with the "Köl­ner" pleas­ure in singing, dan­cing and sway­ing.

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The Luxor in Cologne., © Copyright für "Luxor"

Luxor

Le­gend has it that Joe Cock­er got re­jec­ted at the door, Whit­ney Hou­s­ton turned up in­cog­nito and the Pogues re­quired 20 crates of beer back­stage.

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