The Next Day #137: Berlin Weekend Guide
Must-see events in Berlin: February, 05-08, 2026
Hallo! 🥶
How’s this winter treating you? Here, it’s reaching the bones - literally, after a few falls on Berlin’s icy sidewalks. After two intense weeks at CTM, things are calming down, and I’m thinking about this newsletter’s future.
I love making this guide. It connects me to Berlin’s cultural shifts, helps me spot emerging scenes, and introduces me to people shaping the city. But it’s demanding work that consumes hours each week, and it’s becoming unsustainable.
If you use this guide and it helps you navigate Berlin’s cultural landscape or discover events that resonate, consider supporting it with €5/month. That’s what keeps it going. And thank you to those who already support the guide monthly.
Now, let’s get into this weekend.
Lalai
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SAVE THE DATE: Screenwriting360 - Saturday, 28.02, 10 am-6 pm.
A full-day masterclass: craft, business, and career for screenwriters. Industry pros from Netflix, Disney+, and European film teach storytelling, financing, pitching, and marketing. Walk away with templates and an outreach plan. We’ll be there!
🎸 LIVE
Lydia Lunch’s Big Sexy Noise + Mellowdeath ✨
Sunday, 08.02, 7 pm. Neue Zukunft, Friedrichshain. €24
No wave legend Lydia Lunch returns with cult project Big Sexy Noise: James Johnston on molten guitar, Ian White (Barry Adamson) on shuffling groove, and Lunch’s venomous snarl. Blues-soaked 70s heavy rock flipped brutal. Celebrating their new live album.
XJAZZ! presents: Elijah Fox - Improvised Solo Piano
Wednesday, 04.02, 8 pm (doors 7 pm). Emmauskirche, Kreuzberg. €25
Three-time Grammy-nominated pianist improvises an entire concert responding to Berlin - each city gets a unique performance, recorded as a document. Keith Jarrett-inspired improvisation, church acoustics amplify the intimacy. Latest album: Ambient Works for the Highways of Los Angeles.
Naked Lunch
Friday, 06.02, 8 pm (doors 7 pm). Berghain Kantine, Friedrichshain. €28.50
Austrian post-punk legends Naked Lunch return after a 12-year album hiatus with “Lights And A Slight Taste Of Death” - dark pop, free jazz saxophone outbursts, ballads that hit hard. Oliver Welter's songwriting goes deep.
🔊 FREQUENCY
setten session: Jessica Ekomane and Koshiro Hino ✨
Thursday, 05.02, 8 pm. Morphine Raum, Kreuzberg. €12
Jessica Ekomane’s quadraphonic psychoacoustics meet Koshiro Hino’s first European modular synth performance. The Osaka-based multi-instrumentalist brings work that spans from Japanese taiko ensemble Kodo to experimental collaborations with Valentina Magaletti. Quadraphonic psychoacoustics meet generative modular synth explorations.
CLEF LUTE TANGO LOUD PHOTON: Amnesia Scanner feat. Debit
Thursday, 05.02, 7:30 pm (doors), 8:30-10 pm. Halle am Berghain. €15-18
Debit uses breath and machine learning to shape sonic patterns. Amnesia Scanner closes with bioluminescent strobes capturing glowworm pulses, visuals by Jenna Sutela. Non-human ecosystems, edge of perception.
180 min with Lawrence (live)
Thursday, 05.02, 7 pm-midnight. ZENNER, Alt-Treptow. €20-25
Dial Records boss Lawrence improvises for three hours on a concert vibraphone: acoustic instruments meet real-time electronic manipulation. Deep house/minimal producer goes full avant-garde. Multi-instrumentalist Margaux Gazur opens.
STROM (day 2) ✨
Saturday, 07.02, 8 pm - 3 am. Philharmonie Berlin, Tiergarten. €40
Stefan Goldmann's curation splits Philharmonie's architecture: Alva Noto's rare live set and Azu Tiwaline & Cinna Peyghamy's SWANA experimentations on the Grand Hall stage, while Ben Klock b2b Fadi Mohem, Marfox and Polygonia hold the foyer dancefloor.
KLIKERKLUB w/ Svitlana Nianio, Mechika, Regina Collage
Saturday, 07.02, 7 pm. Hotel Continental, Elsenstraße 87, Treptow. €15-18
Kyiv Underground legend Svitlana Nianio headlines: primeval myths meet medieval-inspired vocals, magic realism woven through sound. Mechika turns broken instruments into nature-rooted folk. Bristol's Regina Collage brings krautrock-meets-synth-pop noise.
Andrew Pekler Live
Saturday, 07.02, 9 pm. Pastiche, Weserstr. 46, Neukölln. €12-17
Uzbekistan-born, Berlin-based producer on Faitiche and Kranky: sampling and synthesis create texturally rich sound compositions. Field recordings, ambient, musique concrète since 2002. Co-creator of Phantom Islands - A Sonic Atlas
Berlin Confidential w/ Kaan Bulak & Ella van Poucke
Sunday, 08.02, 7 pm. Villa Elisabeth, Invalidenstraße 3, Mitte. €15-25
Composer-pianist Kaan Bulak (Istanbul melodies meet Berlin club music, works for Elbphilharmonie/Philharmonie) premieres cello sonata “Briefly Gorgeous” with Dutch cellist Ella van Poucke. Bach alongside electro-acoustic originals.
💦 SWEAT
Refuge Worldwide 5th Birthday ✨
Saturday, 07.02, 7 pm-2 am. Secret location near Jannowitzbrücke. €17-20 + €5 membership
Community radio’s 5th: 2.5-hour improvised jam with saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi, dancehall’s Gavsborg, Afro-Brazilian percussionist K’boko, and Mississippi rapper Sorvina. Hip-hop legend DJ Amir b2b Jaxx TMS follows. Drag sensation BLEACH closes the barroom.
Fear of Silence x Ghosttown
Thursday, 05.02, 10 pm-6 am. OHM, Mitte. €15
Two collectives curate a low-end driven night: Rhyw (Avian/Hyperdub), Dangermami, Overnap (live), and Delta Division b2b Rompa. Percussive, raucous, bass-heavy. Sat, 07.02: Hunee’s intimate disco/house session also at OHM.
EXP2 - Lauren Duffus, Emma DJ, TRYCE
Friday, 06.02, 11 pm-6 am. Panke, Wedding. €20
Deconstructed trance and experimental bass from the UK's Lauren Duffus, Emma DJ, TRYCE. Post-club sound - abstract, fragmented, states over bangers. Healer (Rahina b2b XZYPHY), cola2k support. For ravers who want to be challenged.
Heidegluehen #1
Saturday, 07.02, 2 pm - 6 am. Heideglühen, Wedding.
Chez Damier celebrates his birthday with a 3-hour set (5-8 pm) - Detroit house legend holds the intimate glass-ceiling space. 16-hour session continues with house, disco, and funk.
👁️ WATCH
Salome by Einar Schleef after Oscar Wilde ✨
Fri-Tue, 06-10.02 & 12-16.03, 8 pm. Schaubühne, Wilmersdorf. €14-48
Michael Thalheimer returns to Schaubühne after nine years with Einar Schleef’s radical take on Wilde’s Salome. Unfettered lust, decadence, and desire meet minimalist staging - Prophet John in a cistern, Herod’s obsession, and the dance that breaks all limits. First weekend sold out.
The Hunger
Friday, 06.02, 7:30 pm. Surtitles DE/EN. Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburg-Platz. €19-35
Constanza Macras | DorkyPark’s final performance: 16th-century cannibalistic rituals in Argentina’s Rio de la Plata overlap with contemporary consumption frenzy and social media’s hyperproduction. Colonialism meets capitalism. Music by Robert Lippok (To Rococo Rot), live camera, international ensemble.
Violanta
Wed, 04.02, 6 pm; Fri, 06 and 13.02, 7:30 pm. Surtitles DE/EN. 90 mins, no interval. Deutsche Oper Berlin, Charlottenburg. €26-144 (Opera Day 04.02: €34)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s 1916 one-act opera: Vienna fin-de-siècle meets Carnival Venice - lust, guilt, and revenge during psychoanalysis’s birth. Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles, soprano Laura Wilde. 18-year-old composer’s overnight shift from prodigy to master.
Wojciech Rybicki: SISTERS
Saturday, 07.02, 5 pm & 8 pm. Sophiensæle, Mitte. €10-25
Queer choreographer reconstructs a 1990 Polish ballet cancelled when communism fell, layered with memory of his 2019 performance that his dying grandfather never finished watching. Semi-documentary dance as a love letter.
🖼️ LOOK
C/O Berlin: Graciela Iturbide, Dörte Eißfeldt, and Sheung Yiu ✨
Friday, 06.02, 8 pm. Mexican DJ duo Pencasonics spins all-vinyl cumbia/norteña/hip-hop from 9 pm. C/O Berlin, Charlottenburg. Free
Three exhibitions open at C/O this weekend: Graciela Iturbide’s first major Berlin retrospective, “Eyes to Fly With,” presents 50+ years documenting Mexico’s Zapotec matriarchy, Seri nomads, cholos subculture, and Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul. Dörte Eißfeldt’s five-decade survey of experimental German photography. Sheung Yiu merges face reading, physiognomy, and facial recognition tech.
JAŠA: The Monuments | Chapter 16 | Poetic Justice
Friday, 06.02, 6-10 pm (entry: 6, 7, 8, 9 pm). Kühlhaus Berlin, Luckenwalder Straße 3, Kreuzberg. €10
Four years of site-specific work culminate across three floors of Kühlhaus. Immersive installation meets durational performance; you don’t just watch, you navigate. Sound, paintings, bodies in space. Venice Biennale artist goes radical.
Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff: The End of THEATER
Opening: Saturday, 07.02, 6 pm. Exhibition runs until 21.03. Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Kreuzberg. Free
They run a black box theater in LA. The whole messy cycle - rehearsals, fiction, Leilah Weinraub performing Kennedy - arrives at Bortolozzi. Where theater ends, and film begins is the point.
Jeanne Eschert: ‘we prepared ourselves not to be found’
Premiere: Saturday, 07.02, 8 pm. Performances: Sunday, 08.02, 5:30 & 6:30 pm. Ballhaus Ost, Prenzlauer Berg. €10-15
Performance born from year-long “bed fold readings”—one-on-one sessions with chronically ill and bedridden people. Bed as site of concealment, connection, infrastructure. Folds carry sounds, stories, and desire lines that make invisible connections traceable. The artist works with magic tricks, chronic illness, and transness.
🫓 TASTE
Garo Gante x RAD Pop-Up
Sunday, 08.02, 2 pm until sold out. The RAD, Friedelstraße 30, Neukölln.
Garo Gante returns to Berlin kitchens with seasonal winter vegetables and citrus-driven dishes. Choose from two starters, two mains, and one dessert. The RAD pours natural wines and non-alcoholic options. Produce-driven, one-day only.
🫶 COMMUNITY
Lo-Fi Playground: Off-Screen Design Jam ✨
Saturday, 07.02, 4:30-8 pm. Space Of Hearts, Charlottenburg. €55 - max 8 people
Open studio jam session for designers and makers. Work with collage, stencils, texture - lo-fi spirit means low-tech, quick decisions. No polishing, just raw material and creative flow. Led by visual artist Alex Libotte. End with show-and-tell, take home your studies. Materials included.
Freelancers’ Meeting at Metis Books and Café
Sunday, 08.02, 11 am-1 pm. Metis Books and Café, Prenzlauer Berg. Free with a purchase from the café.
Solopreneurs meet up at an indie bookshop-café. Connect with fellow freelancers over coffee. Low-key Sunday morning networking - no pitch decks, just conversation. Saturday at 6 pm: English book club discussing Patti Smith’s “Bread of Angels” - €7.
✨ MISC
TASCHEN Warehouse Sale ✨
Until Saturday, 07.02, 11 am-8 pm. TASCHEN Store, Schlüterstraße 39, Charlottenburg. Annual warehouse sale: art books, photography monographs, design tomes up to 75% off.
The Archive Market x MIROU
Until Saturday, 07.02, 12-7 pm. Ruuum Studio, Kastanienallee 43, Prenzlauer Berg.
Curated pre-loved and archive pieces from Innsbruck’s MIROU: Yohji Yamamoto, Y3, Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons, Prada. 50-70% off.
Artminius21: Moabit Art Market
Saturday, 07.02, 10 am-5 pm. Arminius Markthalle, Moabit. Free
Historic 19th-century market hall transforms into art and design bazaar. Local designers sell handmade jewelry, bags, kids’ clothes, illustrations, and unique gifts.
The Crafty Market
Sat-Sun, 07-08.02, 12-8 pm. The Playce, Alte Potsdamer Straße 7. Free.
Handmade crafts from South and Latin America - knitwear, ceramics, jewelry, and traditional products. Manifesto Market restaurants and bars nearby for post-browse food and drinks.
📌 SAVE THE DATE
Kelly Moran: New York pianist and producer on Warp - prepared piano and synths, somewhere between minimalism and electronic experimentation. 10.02, silent green. ✨✨
An Evening With David Byrne - Who is the Sky Tour: 12.02, Tempodrom.
Jon Hopkins: Quantum Sound at Funkhaus: Spatialised listening sessions and live piano improvisation celebrating Hopkins’ new album. 14.02, Funkhaus Saal 1. ✨✨
Raül Refree + Francisco Riffo (Modern Obscure Music), Spanish producer cult (worked with Rosalía, Lee Ranaldo), meets Chilean experimental percussionist - psychoacoustic explorations. silent green, Saturday, 14.02. ✨✨
Kat Frankie, Berlin-based Americana/folk experimental with a singular voice. Metropol, Thursday, 19.02
Algomystica x S4NTP pres. The Non-Trivial Sound System, an experimental sound system exploring mystic/spiritual electronics - immersive quadraphonic experience. silent green, Friday, 20.02
Geordie Greep, Black Midi’s frontman, goes solo - post-punk experimental Gen Z darling. Gretchen, Friday, 20.02
Mihály Víg & Balaton, Hungarian composer behind all Béla Tarr’s films (Satantango, The Turin Horse) - cinematic soundscapes for Berlinale crowd. silent green, Sunday, 22.02
Laufey, Icelandic jazz-pop Gen Z sensation. Velodrom, Tuesday, 24.02
Duo Ruut, Estonian neo-folk duo: female voices, traditional instruments meet subtle electronics. silent green, Saturday, 28.02
Elias Rønnenfelt, Iceage frontman’s solo project: post-punk Copenhagen cult meets silent green’s curated intimacy. silent green, Friday, 06.03. ✨✨
Thundercat, Jazz-fusion bass virtuoso, Flying Lotus/Kendrick collaborator. Huxley’s Neue Welt, Monday, 09.03
Austra, Canadian synth-pop meets experimental electronica, LGBTQ+ icon. Kesselhaus, Thursday, 12.03
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ruban Nielson's psych-rock project: lo-fi funk meets Brazilian tropicália and warped guitar pop. Metropol, Friday, 13.03
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Canadian post-rock experimental legends for deep listening purists. Festsaal Kreuzberg, Monday, 16.03. ✨✨
Jimi Tenor, Finnish experimental electronic jazz legend at the perfect intimate venue. arkaoda, Thursday, 19.03.