What exactly did Monika Kruse announce?
On August 31, Monika Kruse told her following on Instagram that she would not be playing Tanzen im Grünen, the open-air techno night in Nuremberg she was booked for this Saturday, September 5. In her own words, translated from German: "My anxiety disorder has unfortunately come back with full force." She described physical symptoms and a deep exhaustion, and said she did not have the strength left to deliver a set at the level she expects of herself, so she cancelled instead of forcing it.
"My anxiety disorder has unfortunately come back with full force."
Why does this land differently coming from her?
Monika Kruse has been behind the decks since 1991. She was one of the DJs who built Munich's early rave scene, moved to Berlin in 1997, and founded her label Terminal M in 2000. That is more than three decades of flights, all-nighters and a release schedule that rarely pauses. She has previously said she has managed this anxiety disorder since 2022. What is different this week is that instead of quietly pulling a sick note or pushing through on adrenaline, she cancelled in public and put a name to the reason.
How has the scene responded?
Fellow techno veterans Ellen Allien, Chris Liebing and Len Faki, three artists with comparable decades on the road, responded publicly with support rather than silence, and the wider comment section under her post filled with the same. None of that undoes the exhaustion she described. But it is a rare, visible break from a touring culture that usually treats cancelling as career risk and burnout as something you handle off camera.
