Pure&Crafted Festival

Pure&Crafted Festival began in Berlin in 2015 with an idea that brought together worlds sharing audiences and aesthetics but rarely integrated so explicitly within a single festival. Guitar-driven music, customised motorcycles, handmade design and what became known as New Heritage culture met at Postbahnhof for an inaugural edition led by The Hives and Refused, alongside Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Mighty Oaks, Blood Red Shoes, Friska Viljor, Allah-Las and other artists. BMW Motorrad initiated the project, but motorcycles were never treated simply as sponsorship decoration: custom builders, workshops, demonstrations and mechanical culture occupied the same physical environment as concerts, independent fashion, handmade products and food.

The second edition consolidated that formula in 2016 with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Mando Diao, Band of Skulls, Tricky, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The King Blues and others. Pure&Crafted was primarily anchored in rock and indie but deliberately avoided defining its musical personality too narrowly. Garage rock, punk, folk, songwriter material and harder-to-classify projects could coexist as long as they shared a sense of individuality and a strong relationship with live performance. The idea of “crafted” applied equally to a hand-modified motorcycle, a guitar, a leather product, a garment or an object made by an independent designer, allowing one concept to connect almost every area of the festival.

The move to Altes Kraftwerk Rummelsburg in 2017 strengthened the industrial identity considerably. Interpol headed a programme also featuring Car Seat Headrest, Giant Rooks, Gurr, Razz, Abay and other acts, while the former power station supplied machine halls, concrete structures and open yards that naturally connected alternative music with custom-bike culture. The General Store brought together fashion, accessories and small independent brands, the Food Court expanded the culinary component, and motorcycles remained central through international custom exhibitions, ride-outs and attractions such as the Motodrom. It was difficult to draw a clear boundary between motorcycle event and music festival because both were designed to flow constantly into each other.

After three consecutive Berlin editions, Pure&Crafted temporarily changed shape. In 2018 the concept travelled through Pure&Crafted On The Road, while the complete festival moved to the Taets Art and Event Park near Amsterdam in 2019. Bad Nerves, SONS, Indian Askin and Swedish Death Candy were among the artists in a chapter demonstrating that the brand could operate away from Berlin while retaining its three defining elements: music, motorcycles and New Heritage culture. Berlin nevertheless remained its natural centre. Following the pandemic interruption, Pure&Crafted returned there in 2021 at the Sommergarten of Messe Berlin with The Hives, Jake Bugg, Kadavar, Jupiter Jones, Sofia Portanet, Pillow Queens and other performers.

The 2022 edition compressed the experience into a particularly intense single day at the Sommergarten, bringing together Pixies, Nothing But Thieves, The Vaccines and Altın Gün. That selection captured the way Pure&Crafted approached music: artists with distinctive personalities, convincing live performances and connections to indie, alternative rock, garage, psychedelia and roots-based sounds. Around the stages, visitors continued to encounter customised motorcycles, the Wall of Death, designers, traditional manufacturers, clothing, accessories, food trucks and bars. Moving from the work of a specialist bike builder to a live band did not feel like switching events; both were treated as expressions of the same creative culture.

In 2023 the festival changed locations again and moved into Napoleon Komplex in Friedrichshain, with Cari Cari, Drangsal, Circa Waves, Zimmer90 and a younger generation of musicians. Art became more prominent, and a new skate area featuring pop-art obstacles expanded the original concept into a broader creative environment. No subsequent full-scale festival edition has taken place, although Pure&Crafted remains an active brand and reappears in 2026 through a BMW Motorrad-linked ClubNight. Its story therefore remains open rather than formally concluded: a festival concept currently at rest, but one that repeatedly succeeded in treating guitars, custom motorcycles, craftsmanship, design and urban culture as inseparable parts of the same experience.