The Next Day #139: Berlin Weekend Guide
Must-see events in Berlin: February, 12-15, 2026
Berlinale floods Berlin with 400+ films and international crowds this weekend. We made a festival guide. The weather forecast: cold, grey, but sunny on Sunday. The cultural forecast: unrelenting.
Lyra Pramuk’s devotional electronics fundraise for Iran and Palestine, Jon Hopkins brings longform piano improvisation to Funkhaus, vinyl-only DJ Willow headlines Garage Girls at OHM. Galentine’s Dinner seats 24 at a shared table (we’d be there if budget allowed). Anne Buckwalter opens her first Berlin solo, exploring desire through Pennsylvania Dutch folk art.
Today, our neighbor Maurice Frank hosts The 20% Berlin New Quiz — pub quiz on Berlin trivia, news, and music.
This week's news: Kino International reopens on February 26.
Lalai
⚡︎ If you enjoy “The Next Day Berlin,” consider supporting us for just 5 euros a month to help keep the guide going, or you can also buy us a coffee. Follow us on Instagram for extra tips.
❗Stay in the loop with Berlin’s latest news in English through 20 Percent Berlin. Get a sneak peek of our weekend guide every Tuesday.
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!
🎬 SPECIAL
Berlinale 2026
Thu-Sun, 12-22.02. Various venues across Berlin. €6-20.
400+ films across 10 days. Our guide covers the highlights (At the Sea with Amy Adams, Rosebush Pruning with Elle Fanning/Pamela Anderson/Riley Keough), politically urgent work (Roya made clandestinely in Iran, Traces from Ukrainian women survivors), and wildcards (Charli xcx's The Moment, Where To? shot in Berlin).
🎸 LIVE
An Evening With David Byrne - Who is the Sky Tour
Thursday, 12.02, 8 pm. Tempodrom, Kreuzberg. €71-190
"Who is the Sky" is the first new album since American Utopia (2018) with Ghost Train Orchestra arrangements. Features St. Vincent, Hayley Williams (Paramore), Tom Skinner (The Smile), and Mauro Refosco. Byrne describes anthropological New York observations through groove/melody balance - "music can reconcile opposites simultaneously."
Whitney
Thursday, 12.02, 8 pm. Lido, Friedrichshain. €28
Chicago duo blends folk, soul, and Americana with Julien Ehrlich's wistful falsetto and Max Kakacek's guitar. New self-produced album Small Talk, recorded live, captures an intimate friendship spanning a decade.
SHAKE STEW - 10 Years
Friday, 13.02, 7:30 pm. Gretchen, Kreuzberg. €18-25
Austrian collective celebrates a decade with the first two parts of triple album TEN ONE TWO THREE. Two drummers, two bassists, three horns create hypnotic soundscapes and trance-inducing grooves. New member Yvonne Moriel joins for a fresh tonal dimension.
🔊 FREQUENCY
No_Stone: Circles 3 with Lyra Pramuk, Tarxun (live), Assyouti
Thursday, 12.02, 8 pm–2 am. Bar Neun, Kreuzberg. €10 minimum donation
Fundraiser for families in Iran and Palestine. Lyra Pramuk‘s devotional electronics meet Tarxun‘s psychedelic IDM live set (glitchy ambient and noise). Assyouti opens.
Green Room Listening Room with DJ Durbin & Monobi
Thursday, 12.02, 6:30–11 pm. Geist im Glas, Neukölln. Donation-based Tempestfeather, Monibi from Low End Therapy, and DJ Durbin present experimental bass and rhythmic listening on a Funktion-One system. It’s an intimate gathering built around deep listening, not dancing.
Mastery x MONOM: Quantum Sound with Jon Hopkins
Saturday, 14.02, 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm. Funkhaus Berlin Saal 1, Lichtenberg. €50 Jon Jon Hopkins' longform piano improvisation with Maddie Ashman and Leo Abrahams follows his Embodiment Breathing breathwork piece, spatialized in 4DSOUND. Live sets from William Russell and Ruthlss. Two identical shows for World Sound Healing Day at MONOM.
Modern Obscure Music pres. Raül Refree + Francisco Riffo
Saturday, 14.02, 8 pm. silent green Kuppelhalle, Wedding. €18
Barcelona's Raül Refree (producer behind Rosalía's Los Ángeles) explores acoustic/electric guitar with field recordings and electronics. Chilean composer Francisco Riffo uses Max/MSP for rhythmically layered music between dance and contemplation.
SICKER MAN feat. Kiki Bohemia & Ensemble
Sunday, 15.02, 7 pm. Neue Zukunft, Neukölln. €15
Album release for Spökenkieker with a six-piece ensemble. Spiritual jazz, orchestral swing, and impressionism collide with dubstep beats and electric cello noise. Kiki Bohemia on electronics and bass. Iranian-Berlin duo Duet (Niki Yaghmaee on violin/viola, Golsana Shenasaei on cello) opens.
💦 SWEAT
Garage Girls - Valentine’s Day Special
Friday, 13.02, 11:59 pm–9 am (Sat). OHM, Kreuzberg. €15
Vinyl-only DJ Willow from London brings bossy, chuggy UK garage with distorted vocals and mind-bending blends. New residents Jana Falcon and Immy b2b Triqi, plus KENZA.
weeeirdos
Thursday, 12.02, 10 pm–6 am. Säule / Berghain, Friedrichshain. €15
Mac Declos brings Parisian techno precision, and DJ Skin operates in psychedelic territory. Khloe b2b Mama Yha Yha (Tanga founders) anchor queer lineage. Akua balances old-school knowledge with contemporary production.
House of Others (Vol.6)
Thursday, 12.02, 11 pm–4 am. Bulbul Berlin, Neukölln. €10
The monthly series frames house music as care and collective pleasure. Shadysnack channels the African American origins of house and disco through soulful sets. Kubin runs vinyl-only across Chicago house, acid, and proto-house.
Cuddles: 2 Year Anniversary [24hrs]
Fri-Sat, 13-14.02, 11:59 pm–11:59 pm. ÆDEN, Kreuzberg. €28 - BIPOC and TIN* reduced entry.
24-hour queer party spans Brussels euphoric '90s house, Paris Latin bass, Copenhagen deep percussion, NYC Sound Factory legacy, Berlin UK garage to punky techno. Aldonna, Jessica Nightlife, Nene H, Zeynep.
Klubnacht: Quiet Husband, DJ Nobu, Cosmo (KR), Oscar Mulero
Fri-Mon, 14-17.02, 11:59 pm - 6 am. Berghain | Panorama Bar | Säule, Friedrichshain.
Richie Culver's Quiet Husband debuts material from Lands EP: windswept 180bpm loops, abstract experimental tracks, and physical low-end pressure. Hull industrial rave meets marathon techno with DJ Nobu, Oscar Mulero, and The Lady Machine. Seoul's Cosmo brings psychedelic disco and minimal acid to Panorama Bar alongside Lakuti, Tama Sumo, and Steffi.
Beate Barfuß /// tatzentanz, jane ulé, tadoh, ɳeoƁeơ
Sunday, 15.02, 5 pm–4 am. Beate Uwe, Friedrichshain. €12
Sunday downtempo series: roll out carpets for conscious deceleration and soulful sway. Four artists, including jane ulé, from the downtempo scene create a cozy atmosphere. It’s accessible, non-smoking, and an explicitly anti-discrimination space.
👁️ WATCH
A Year without Summer
Wed-Fri, 11-13.02 7:30 pm, 6 pm (13.02). Directed by Florentina Holzinger. Surtitles in DE and EN. Volksbühne. €16-49.
A dark, visceral spectacle set in a world stripped of summer and certainty. Florentina Holzinger and ensemble fuse climate catastrophe, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and 21st-century obsessions with youth, body, and technology into a provocative performance ritual exploring the line between creation and monstrosity.
Sabotage
Fri-Sun, 13-15.02, 8 pm (13.02), 5 pm (14.02), 6 pm (15.02). Directed by Yael Ronen. In DE with EN surtitles (13-14.02). Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. €7-54.
Sabotage explores how people stand in their own way - missing chances, ruining relationships, and undermining their own happiness. With humor and sharp insight, Yael Ronen portrays a crisis-ridden humanity trapped in self-sabotage yet still on the verge of new beginnings.
Androgynous. Portrait Of a Naked Dancer
Sat-Sun, 14-15.02, 7:30 pm / 6 pm (15.02). Directed by Lola Arias. In DE with EN surtitles. Maxim Gorki Theater. €12-40.
ANDROGYNOUS is a project by Lola Arias in collaboration with River Roux, a performer and pole dancer. Alongside Bishop Black and Dieter Rita Scholl, Roux retraces the steps of Anita Berber and other legendary figures of 1920s Berlin.
Glitch Witch
Thu-Sat, 12-14.02 7 pm / 8 pm (13.02). Directed by Meg Stuart / Damaged Goods & Dance On Ensemble. HAU2. €35.
In “GLITCH WITCH”, choreographer Meg Stuart, dancer Omagbitse Omagbemi, and composer/musician Mieko Suzuki meet in a sparklingly desolate, enigmatically burned-out landscape. Moving within and beyond the personal histories imprinted on their bodies, they glide and glitch between different possible worlds – between above and below, between the before and after of every passing moment.
Young-jun Tak: Choreography Film Series
Friday, 13.02, midnight. BABYLON big cinema hall, Mitte. Free
Four choreography films juxtapose queer bodies across contrasting spaces: church/club with swapped Bach pieces, male dancers in Grunewald cruising forest, Norwegian stave church, jumbo aircraft, and anatomy theater.
🖼️ LOOK
Anne Buckwalter
Opening: Friday, 13.02, 6 -8 pm. Exhibition through 21.03. Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Mitte.
First solo at the gallery. US painter explores intersection of sexuality and domestic life, inspired by Pennsylvania Dutch folk art. Integrates erotic with mundane, investigating body, femininity, and desire.
A Spiral, a Mouth, a Horn and a Halo
Opening: Friday, 13.02, 6–9 pm. Exhibition through 28.03. Galerie Tanja Wagner, Tiergarten.
Curated group show examines how digital life reshapes memory and storytelling. Annabel Daou, Elisa Giardina Papa, Shuang Li, Wie-yi T. Lauw, Bethan Hughes, Olga Hohmann. "Those in power know compelling story outweighs fact."
Andrea J. Grote + Charlotte Bastian "On Terraforming."
Opening: Friday, 13.02, 7 pm, exhibition through March 14. Axel Obiger, Mitte. Bastian's analogue collages create cognitive dissonance around landscape and Anthropocene. Grote's multiple-exposure installations expose Tyrolean alpine tourism infrastructure. Photography's constructed nature makes environmental degradation seductive and unsettling.
DER RAUM DES UNBEHAGENS (THE ROOM OF DISCOMFORT)
Sunday, 15.02, 3 pm - 6 pm. Galiläakirche, Friedrichshain. Free
Julian Kirschler converts a Friedrichshain church into a site-specific investigation of power, manipulation, and democratic erosion through photography, AI-generated imagery, 3D animation, and spatial sound. Opening includes a talk with Monopol Magazine’s Sebastian Frenzel at 3:30 pm.
Visiting for Berlinale? Also: David Lynch at PACE Gallery and "Eyes to Fly - Graciela Iturbide" at C/O Berlin - two exhibitions that dialogue directly with the festival's cinematic universe through visual storytelling, surrealism, and documentary poetry.
🍽 TASTE
Galentine's Dinner
Friday, 13.02, 6 pm - 9:30 pm. Klub Maison, Wedding. €75 Community dinner for 24 at one shared table. Chef Maya Jolina (FORK Berlin) and chef Ponysailor (Klub Maison) collaborate on four courses with natural wine pairing by Weingoutte. Singles, couples, and friends all welcome. Family-style dinner format designed for connection.
Chinese New Year Festival
Sunday, 15.02, noon - 10 pm. Dot Tea Bar, Prenzlauer Berg. Workshop €30
Year of the Snake celebration with live Zhongruan (traditional Chinese plucked string instrument) and Taiwanese artist Yuli. Jiaozi dumpling workshop 3-5 pm includes tea and unlimited dumplings. Tea quiz, tea-based cocktails, mini-games.
🫶 COMMUNITY
Look Up Here: Bowie, 10 Years On
Thursday, 12.02, 7 pm. Shakespeare and Sons, Friedrichshain. €17
Writers Rory MacLean (Berlin: Imagine a City, worked with Bowie on Just a Gigolo set in 1977) and Demi Anter (poet, Berlinerin since 2016) reflect on Bowie's Berlin legacy through readings and conversation. Intimate storytelling event honoring the iconic Berlin era. Books and drinks available.
Breakfast Club x VOLTZ à la Carte
Saturday, 14.02, 12 pm–6 pm. Giri, Neukölln. €5-10 donation with RSVP
Day party for club culture: shared table, Japanese food, curated electronic sound, and art installation. Decompressive gathering designed for connection without late-night pressure.
✨ MISC
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
Friday, 13.02, 6–10 pm. Ngbk@Stadtwerkstatt, Kreuzberg. Free
Marina Gržinić on 1980s Ljubljana punk/new wave, Ukrainian collective Bass Resistance on resistance through sound, and Entropie Festival on anti-capitalist spaces. Films, talks, DJ set by Terikon. Club culture as political resistance in authoritarian contexts.
Gather in sound x Blend – Vol. 3
Saturday, 14.02, 4 pm – 12 am. Ikii, Herrfurthplatz 8, Neukölln. €25
An ambient and experimental listening session pairing Laura Fiore’s vinyl-led selections with Bernhard Hollinger’s improvised sound pieces, plus a tea ritual by Blend that turns the space into a slow, sensory gathering.
UNMUTED: Love and Iran
Saturday, 14.02, 8 pm. ACUD Club, Mitte. Free (registration required)
Listening session and concerts with FARAVAZ (Women, Life, Freedom movement) and MADANII (Berlin-based, queer love/belonging). Moderated by music journalist Aida Baghernejad. Explores love as a poetic/political force against Iran’s ban on female voices since 1979.
📌 SAVE THE DATE
🎭 Super Night Shot by Gob Squad is a unique multi-screen movie that is screened only once. Filming begins exactly one hour before the audience arrives at the theatre when Gob Squad takes to the city streets, cameras rolling. HAU 1, Wed-Thu, 18-19.02.
🎹 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
🎭 Le Paradoxe de John by Philippe Quesne / Vivarium Studio questions the role of art in everyday life with humour and melancholy. HAU 2, Fri-Sat, 20-21.02.
🥁 Carnaval Baile da Bossa 2026: A sweaty, day-to-night Brazilian carnival blowout with live samba, frevo and axé, DJs, caipirinhas and full-tilt dancefloor energy. Festsaal Kreuzberg, Sat, 21.02, from €22 (€3 OFF - code THENEXTDAY)
🎹 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
🩰ྀི The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker & Alain Franco / Rosas. In her second exploration of Bach’s iconic music, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker returns to the stage herself. HAU 1, Fri-Sun, 27.02-01.03.
🎤 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
🩰ྀི For the Time Being: Sasha Waltz dives into deep listening, altered states and collective ritual in a hypnotic new piece where dancers drift between memory, voice and movement. radialsystem, Tue, 10-15.03. €20-25
🩰ྀི Kreatur: A dark, high-fashion dance fever dream where bodies clash, merge and mutate, set to raw, animal energy and sculptural costumes by Iris van Herpen. Radialsystem, Thu–Sun, 12–15.03. €19-51
🎹 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, playing at the perfect intimate venue. arkaoda, Thursday, 19.03.