The Next Day #140: Berlin Weekend Guide
Must-see events in Berlin: February, 19-22, 2026
Berlinale continues, but getting tickets this year is proving genuinely difficult. Check this link for all films with tickets still available for purchase, and explore neighborhood cinemas through Berlinale Goes Kiez and Uber Eats (not as bad as it sounds).
The weekend finally arrives with milder temperatures, though rain is forecast for all four days.
If you can only make one thing per section: Jazzexzess at Berghain Kantine for polyrhythmic deep listening, Vladimir Ivkovic’s all-night set at Sameheads for patient house selection, Gob Squad’s live cinema experiment capturing Berlin streets in real time, and KW’s triple opening featuring Klara Lidén’s urban unbuilding across three floors. Sunday ends with Brazilian Carnaval featuring 15 hours of samba, frevo, and feijoada at Festsaal Kreuzberg.
Now, let’s get into this weekend.
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.
🎸 LIVE
Geordie Greep + Corte!
Friday, 20.02, 7 pm. Gretchen, Kreuzberg. €22
Black Midi’s frontman brings his São Paulo-recorded solo debut, The New Sound, to Berlin. Latin jazz-rock, prog, and tropicália collide.
They Are Gutting A Body Of Water
Sunday, 22.02, 8 pm. Neue Zukunft, Alt-Stralau. €25
Philadelphia shoegaze band returns with new album LOTTO. Breakcore interludes, N64 samples, anti-spectacle approach - they play on the floor facing each other. Stereogum called them essential to modern shoegaze. Artist-run space.
Magdalena Bay
Sunday, 22.02, 8 pm (doors 6:30 pm). Columbiahalle, Tempelhof. €35
LA synth-pop duo releases Imaginal Disk - synthesized nostalgia meets neo-hooks and kitschy catchiness. Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin craft pop for the cloud age. Allie X opens.
🔊 FREQUENCY
Annika Kahrs: “Ganz ungültig, nur ein Versuch” + Concert
Thursday, 19.02, 6 pm (opening), 8 pm (concert). Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Tiergarten. Free (opening) - Concert: €12-15
Video installation explores Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 0 - the work he declared “invalid” - examining rejection and reinvention. Concert breaks apart classical quartet: rhythm, structure, synchrony dissolved to allow new collective forms. Hamburger Bahnhof on Tour. Pieces: “Strings” and “Alone Together.”
Algomystica x S4NTP pres. The Non-Trivial Sound System
Friday, 20.02, 7 pm. silent green Kuppelhalle, Wedding. €6
Algomystica presents UdK Berlin collective S4NTP, which built a 30-speaker orchestra from salvaged Hi-Fi boxes, studio monitors, and broken toy speakers. Live spatialization performances using sensors, analog electronics, and open-source software that they developed themselves.
Jazzexzess w/ Katharina Ernst & Nout ✨
Saturday, 21.02, 8 pm (doors 7:30 pm). Kantine am Berghain, Friedrichshain. €12
Austrian-Malaysian percussionist Katharina Ernst explores polyrhythmic structures on acoustic drums and electronic devices - Taz calls it “avant-garde, but surprisingly accessible.” French trio Nout (flute, harp, drums) pushes instruments beyond limits: John Zorn’s jazz-noise borders meet Sun Ra.
Signal Cultures Vol. 1 ✨
Saturday, 21.02, 8 pm – 2 am. Studio dB, Uferstrasse 8-11, Studio A14, Wedding. €16
Inaugural edition of this performance and media art festival. Croatian Amor, èvia, mu tate, NEXCYIA, and Carlos Villamizar in networked performances and XR installations that unfold as live experiments on a custom-built sound system.
Mihály Víg & Balaton
Sunday, 22.02, 8 pm. silent green Kuppelhalle, Wedding. €22
Legendary Hungarian underground band performs in Germany for the first time. Mihály Víg composed scores for Béla Tarr's Satantango and Werckmeister Harmonies - hypnotic, melancholic soundscapes for deep listeners and cinephiles.
🎧 TUNE
Hanno Leichtmann @ migas
Friday, 20.02, 8 pm – 11 pm. migas, Wedding. Free - no reservations
Hanno Leichtmann has spent decades quietly shaping Berlin's experimental music scene - collaborations with Alva Noto, releases on Dekorder. This Friday, he brings soundtracks, jazz, bossa nova, and vintage electronics to migas.
Music for Intersecting Planes — Leila Bordreuil & Kali Malone
Sunday, 22.02, 2 pm – 8 pm. Reethaus, Köpenicker Ch 3a, 10317 Berlin. €7.50
Kali Malone on manually-pumped organ, Leila Bordreuil on cello - recorded inside a Swiss chapel in septimal just intonation. Now spatialized for Reethaus. Album listening experience, artists not present. If you’re visiting Berlin, it’s definitely worth stopping by just for the architecture and the sound system.
💦 SWEAT
BOTA
Thursday, 19.02, 8 pm – 3 am. arkaoda, Neukölln. €15
HEMATOMA returns live after four years away, joined by Nikita T and Vaccaro in their first live sets, and Folly Ghost. Bass, 808, baile funk, and dub synthesis. It promises to be a fun night.
KW Spring Opening Afterparty
Friday, 20.02, 10 pm – 4 am. Chausseestraße 131, Mitte. €7
Afterparty for the KW Spring Program opening. DJ K8 spins riot grrrl to pop, Eric D. Clark moves through disco, house, and funk, slimgirl fat b2b amelie kahl closes with indie sleaze and electronica. €7 at the door.
LOVE ON THE ROCKS ✨
Friday, 20.02, 10 pm – 8 am. Panorama Bar, Friedrichshain.
Satoshi Tomiie, who spent years alongside Frankie Knuckles shaping Chicago house, performs live on modular and drum machines. Sonja Moonear returns to Panorama with an extended set. Dan Ghenacia (Apollonia) closes.
Confusion is Next to Happiness ✨
Friday, 20.02, 10:30 pm – 8 am. Sameheads, Neukölln.
Vladimir Ivkovic has spent years building one of the most respected record collections in European club music. Expect deep, unhurried selection from open to close.
PUFF
Friday, 20.02, 11 pm – 8 am. OHM, Mitte. €12-15
The Italian trio Future Nomadz play their first live set outside Italy. If you like dub, you'll like this. Marco Shuttle and OHM resident Tina on the decks, RosieCpt opens.
Swayzak Live ✨
Saturday, 21.02, 11 pm – 9 am. Hoppetosse, Treptow. €25
Swayzak's first Berlin live show in over twelve years. Swayzak built Snowboarding in Argentina (1998) into a dub techno and house landmark - hardware-driven, fluid, subtly reworked in real time. Mu dB in support, aboard Berlin's floating dancefloor.
👁️ WATCH
Le Paradoxe de John by Philippe Quesne / Vivarium Studio
Fri-Sat, 20-21.02, 7 pm. Hebbel am Ufer HAU 2, Kreuzberg. €15-35
A small group of friends opens an art gallery in Philippe Quesne’s new work—animated objects, foam sculptures, and pianola meet Laura Vazquez’s poetic texts- intimate theatre exploring art’s place in everyday life with melancholic absurdity.
Super Night Shot by Gob Squad ✨
Wed-Thu, 18-19.02, 8 pm. Hebbel am Ufer HAU 1, Kreuzberg. €25
Four performers hit Berlin streets with cameras one hour before showtime, capturing unscripted encounters with strangers. Each screening is unique - raw urban documentation meets live cinema experiment from the experimental theatre collective.
Conni & Clyde by Meo Wulf – last performance
Saturday, 21.02, 9 pm. DE with EN surtitles. Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. €22.
In three dramatic acts, the symbiotic relationship between a non-binary couple gets put to the test onstage. Oscillating between The Fifth Element and Harold and Maude, Christine Groß and Meo Wulf are plunging into love’s universe - a love: everlasting, fulfilled, happy, and very complacent.
🖼️ LOOK
Catherine Opie: Artist Talk & Q&A
Thursday, 19.02, 7:30-9 pm. Neue Nationalgalerie. Free - Live Q&A in English.
Acclaimed American photographer Catherine Opie speaks about her practice exploring identity, visibility, and representation across photography, film, and installation. Documentary precision meets poetic depth. On the occasion of her exhibition “The Pause That Dreams Against Erasure” at Fridericianum, Kassel.
Klara Lidén, Else Marie Pade, Jean Katambayi Mukendi ✨
Opening: Friday, 20.02, 7 - 10 pm. KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Mitte. Free
KW opens three exhibitions: Klara Lidén's first Berlin survey transforms urban materials through "unbuilding" across three floors. Else Marie Pade’s sound installation honors the Danish electronic music pioneer who studied with Stockhausen. Jean Katambayi Mukendi examines power structures through recycled technology and circuit board paintings, addressing Congolese resource extraction.
1.618 @ Schinkel Pavillon
Friday, 20.02, 7:30 pm – 4 am. Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstraße 32, Mitte. €20
Josh Johnson's performance and video work on the golden ratio as ideology, with a live set by Tapiwa Svosve. SALOME and Why Be on the decks after. So yes, it turns into a party.
Dreams That Wake
Opening: Saturday, 21.02, 5-8 pm. Bardo Projektraum, Prenzlauer Berg. Free
Multidisciplinary exhibition exploring dreaming as memory, resistance, and collective imagination. Tala Fasheh’s “Eternal Shadows” traces erased lives in Gaza through photography and Palestinian tatreez embroidery. Mey Seifan’s VR environment and Elizaveta Bogachova’s tile installation on displacement.
🫶 COMMUNITY
Brazilian Carnaval: Baile da Bossa
Saturday, 21.02, 1 pm -4 am. Festsaal Kreuzberg, Neukölln. €22 - €3 off with code THENEXTDAY. Kids under 11 free.
15 hours of Brazilian Carnaval with samba, frevo, axé, and brega. Carnaval Orquestra, Urso Ki Ti Schubsen, Maracatu Treffen, DJs Rô, JC, Carlos Frevo. Food market, caipirinha bar, kids’ activities until 6:30 pm. Party shifts to adult-only after 10 pm.
✨ MISC
1:3000 – Soft Proposals for Hard Grounds
Until Thursday, 19.02, from 10 pm when the bar is open (or by RSVP during the daytime). Ficken3000, Urbanstraße 70, Kreuzberg. Free
A good excuse to finally step inside one of Berlin's most iconic queer bars. HBK Braunschweig students present scale models of alternative monuments and public interventions, shown within a space that is itself an informal monument.
RA Dig Deep
Fri–Sat, 20–21.02, 11 am – 9 pm. Refuge Worldwide, Niemetzstraße 1, Neukölln. Free
Free charity record fair with RA: OYE, !K7, Four Tet, Clone Records, and 150+ label donors. DJ sets, industry talks from 1:30 pm Saturday. All proceeds to War Child.
Crocodile Mimmi Preloved Market
Saturday, 21.02, 11 am - 4 pm. Senefelder Straße 30A, Prenzlauer Berg.
First preloved market of 2026: curated second-hand clothing, vintage pieces, and local designers. Vendors include Rebecca Spielberg, Marie Jaster, Gretas Schwester, and more. Sustainable shopping in an intimate community market.
📌 SAVE THE DATE
🩰ྀི 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.
MaerzMusik 2026: Berlin’s experimental music festival with Georg Friedrich Haas, Ellen Fullman, and Okkyung Lee. Concerts, performances, and installations as living organisms. 20-29.03. Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Radialsystem, silent green, MaHalla & more