South African billionaire Elon Musk has opened a nightclub below the grounds of Tesla’s gigafactory in Grünheide, Brandenburg. Only employees are allowed entry to the so-called "Giga rave cave".

Musk opens Hamster nightclub at Tesla factory

A new nightclub called Hamster has opened below the Tesla gigafactory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, just outside Berlin.

The opening is the response to a poll that Musk published on X in March 2020, asking if “Tesla should have a mega rave cave under the Berlin gigafatory”, to which 90,2 percent of respondents voted “yes”. At the time, Musk claimed the club would have “an epic sound system and woofers the size of a car”. 

Four years later the “rave cave” has materialised. Grünheide factory manager Andre Thierig posted a video on X, which showed a dark tunnel leading to the underground club, writing “Giga Berlin rave cave (aka Hamster) now alive! Party on”.

Responding to the news, Berlin’s Clubcomission - an official body which “protect[s] and develop[s] a diverse and sustainable club scene” - said they welcomed “when local companies recognise that music and club culture is part of the city’s DNA”.

“In the past, we have unfortunately found that companies have used [Berlin’s] cultural offerings to recruit employees, but then have themselves become a displacer of these creative spaces. In this respect, Tesla has shown good instincts here and we hope this commitment can be extended,” the commission told IamExpat.

Tesla factory expansion given green light despite local vote

The news of Hamster’s opening comes the week after Brandenburg’s State Environment Office gave the green light for Musk to expand the gigafactory, despite a local vote in opposition.

In February, 76 percent of Grünheide residents voted against the expansion in a non-legally binding referendum. Tesla maintained that its expansion plans amount to a “big win for the community”, while the Grünheide Citizens' Initiative, a local group which opposed the factory even before it opened, called the referendum result a “historic victory for protecting forest and water” in a region beset with a water shortage.

Local authorities then met with Tesla to discuss how to move forward and ultimately permitted the expansion despite the referendum result. The expansion plans include building a freight depot, storage facilities and childcare facilities for the children of workers at Tesla. The existing site already covers 740 acres, and the new developments would require felling another 250 acres of pine forest which surrounds the plant.

Since the factory opened in 2022, German magazine Stern has reported on several worrying accidents at the factory which endangered employees and the environment. These include a fire caused by a battery which resulted in contaminated water leaking into the soil and an illegal petrol station which “uncontrollably” leaked 250 litres of diesel.

Thumb image credit: Aerovista Luchtfotografie / Shutterstock.com