The Next Day #157: Berlin Weekend Guide
Must-see events in Berlin: June 18-21, 2026
This is the weekend the indoor season hands itself over to the street. The institutions are still opening their summer shows with Gabriele Stötzer at Gropius Bau. Martyna Basta is turning silent green into a listening room, right as the solstice and the Fête de la Musique tip the whole city outside and free. We planned for both: the dark rooms and the long afternoons.
Lalai & Mateus
IF YOU DO TWO THINGS THIS WEEKEND
Gabriele Stötzer: Dabei sein und nicht schweigen [look]
Thursday 18.06 · Vernissage 7 pm · Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7 · free · exhibition runs through 06.12.
The East German artist's largest institutional show. Around 150 works spanning painting, photography, textile, Super 8 film and performance, including the year she spent in prison for organizing a petition against GDR censorship. Free admission for the opening, with a musical performance and DJ sets on the summer terrace. A parallel gallery show, Beginnen im Rinnen der Zeit, opens Friday at LOOCK.
Fête de la Musique
Sunday 21.06 · noon to midnight · across Berlin · free
Berlin goes free for the day, ~300 stages noon to midnight. The anchors: Wooly Aziz solo at Alte Münze with the back rooms open; Hard Wax on the HKW terrace with Ladieschoiceintl; African Acid Is The Future's hidden function at 90mil; Refuge Worldwide all day at Atelier Gardens. Mini-special at the end of the guide.
THURSDAY · 18.06
The weekend opens with a 1970s feminist underground opening at Gropius Bau, a Chicago duo on stage for the first time, and gallery vernissages threading across the city.
Gabriele Stötzer: Dabei sein und nicht schweigen: see above. 7 - 10 pm · Gropius Bau
Sam Prekop & John McEntire [live]
Thursday 18.06 · 8 pm · Lido, Cuvrystraße 7 · €27
Sam Prekop is the voice of The Sea and Cake. John McEntire drums for The Sea and Cake and Tortoise. Their 2022 Thrill Jockey album “Sons Of” stripped the Chicago post-rock vocabulary down to modular synth and electronic drums, and this is that, live, with no band in between. 🎧 Tour EP
Berlin Beats: Byron Yeates [sweat]
Thursday 18.06 · 7 pm · Hamburger Bahnhof garden, Invalidenstraße 50-51 · free
Second night of the summer garden series. Yeates runs Radiant Records out of Berlin, plays the queer dance lineage from Chicago house through New Beat into harder edges, and treats the booth like a record store conversation.
MORE ON THURSDAY
↳ Anup Mathew Thomas: Two new books, two new works plus an old one for good measure: Opening of the DAAD Fellow’s first Berlin solo. Two decades of photography from Kerala, on the threshold between documentation and fable. 7 pm (DJ after 8:30 pm) · daadgalerie, Oranienstraße 161 · free [look]
↳ Pegah Keshmirshekan: What Remains in Place: The Tehran-born artist’s second solo here. Moves out of her painted still lifes into textile and fragmentation, on displacement and ecology. 6:30-9 pm · Galerie Under The Mango Tree, Merseburger Str. 14 · free · walkthrough with the artist on Saturday 2 pm [look]
↳ Black Communion 2nd Edition: Second edition of the listening series for sonic practices across the Black diaspora. Curation that takes the room seriously. 8 pm · Morphine Raum, Köpenicker Str. 147 · €10-15 [frequency]
FRIDAY · 19.06
Gallery openings stack into one evening across the city, a queer migrant late-night moves into the Gropius Bau atrium, and Jenny Hval plays Kantine am Berghain at the scale her songs were written for.
Spätschicht x İÇ İÇE Festival [watch]
Friday 19.06 · 6 pm onwards · Gropius Bau atrium, Niederkirchnerstraße 7 · free
The museum’s late-night series moves indoors to the historic atrium and partners with the new Anatolian music festival the night before its main day. Built around the anthology Nicht die Ersten, the evening uses readings, screenings, performances, and a football tournament to think queer migrant history.
Jenny Hval [live]
Friday 19.06 · 8 pm · Kantine am Berghain · €30
Iris Silver Mist began not with music but with its absence. During the pandemic, Hval turned to perfume as a substitute for presence, and the gesture carries through the record. In one song, she sings about walking her dog in the rain; in another, the Oslo subway hums beneath.
C/O Berlin: Walter Schels + The Lure of the Image [look]
Friday 19.06 · Openings 8 pm (DJ from 9 pm) · C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 22-24 · free
A double vernissage. 16° Fische is the first major German retrospective of Walter Schels in years, four decades of portraiture that include the cancer-ward work that made it harder to think of photographing dying as voyeurism. Next door, “The Lure of the Image: How Pictures Lure on the Net” takes the screen seriously as a place where vision now happens, with Anastasia Samoylova among others.
MORE ON FRIDAY
↳ Gabriele Stötzer: Beginnen im Rinnen der Zeit: The gallery counterpart to the Gropius Bau show that opened the night before. New work, intimate scale. The artist will be present. 3-8 pm · LOOCK Galerie, Potsdamer Str. 63 · free [look]
↳ Festival Never Work: Moya Michael, It’s like a Finger Pointing a Way to the Moon: German premiere by the Brussels and Johannesburg choreographer, between dance and lecture, on ancestry, memory and the labor of mourning. 7 pm · Sophiensæle, Sophienstr. 18 · €15 (also on Saturday) [watch]
↳ Martin Eberle: Difficult Times: Eberle’s archive of Berlin clubs from the late 90s and early 2000s, set against the present. 7 pm · Laura Mars Gallery, Bülowstraße 78 · free [look]
↳ Black to Basics: JUNETEENTH: Juneteenth marked with Black American electronic dance music. 10 pm · Chausseestraße 131 · €12 [sweat]
SATURDAY · 20.06
Solstice eve. İÇ İÇE turns Festsaal into a day-long festival; Atemporal hosts Sera Kalo, and silent green saves the listening event of the season for the end.
İÇ İÇE: Festival für neue anatolische Musik [frequency]
Saturday 20.06 · 3 pm - 6 am · Festsaal Kreuzberg, Am Flutgraben 2 · €25
Germany’s only festival dedicated to new Anatolian music, in its second year. Nene H, Aphroditi, Muskila, Unfug Abla. The İÇ İÇE arc starts with Friday’s reading-set at Gropius Bau, so by the time you arrive here the framing has already been done.
Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi [watch]
Saturday 20.06 · 7 pm · Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Unter den Linden 7 · €13–117 · Directed by Philipp Himmelmann · In IT with DE and EN surtitles.
René Pape returns to Philipp II, the role that has shaped his career in Berlin since the 90s. Fabio Sartori as Carlo, Marina Prudenskaya as Eboli, Leonardo Sini in the pit. Verdi's longest opera plays as politics, family and the Inquisition pressing in from every side.
Martyna Basta: Winged in Collapse + Ange Halliwell [frequency]
Saturday 20.06 · 8 pm · silent green Betonhalle, Gerichtstraße 35 · €19
The Kraków composer twists field recordings, voice, zither and granular electronics into something closer to a deep-listening church than a concert. Her third album features LEYA, Rainy Miller, james K and Felisha Ledesma. Halliwell opens with their own granular soundworld. 🎧 Winged in Collapse
MORE ON SATURDAY
↳ Symposium: Berlin plant. Stunde Null: Afternoon symposium on Berlin’s planning history. The city as a planning question, ahead of the Basta show in the same building. 1-8:30 pm· silent green Kuppelhalle · free [watch]
↳ 35 YEARS ACUD Open House: Both floors of the artist-run house open for the 35th anniversary. 3 pm - 4 am · Acud Macht NEU, Veteranenstr. 21 · donation-based €5 [gather]
↳ Desire Paths: Performance & Closing Reception: Final day of the KHG group show on desire paths, who moves through space, who can’t. Itchi Fleischer performs, then to Abartig. 4-10 pm · Brunnenstr. 107, Mitte · free [look]
↳ Bella Wakame & Joasihno: Two acts from the Notwist orbit. Bella Wakame on their Umor-Rex debut, Joasihno closing with machine music by way of Moondog and Reich. 8 pm · Galiläakirche, Rigaer Str. 9-10 · €15 [frequency]
↳ Midori Hirano live: Berlin-based Japanese composer between classical piano, electronics and field recordings. Short set worth showing up early for. 9:30 pm · Pastiche, Weserstr. 46 · €16-18 [frequency]
↳ ШЩЦ Berlin: Listening session for the Ukrainian experimental label, in town for one evening. 7 pm · 20nine30, Paul-Lincke-Ufer 29-30 · €15-20 (for 2) [frequency]
↳ Oratorium by She She Pop: Explores property, inequality, and power through a participatory choral performance. Inspired by Brecht, She She Pop turns the audience into a choir voting on who owns what. 7 pm · HAU 1 · €22–35 · In DE without surtitles: [watch]
SUNDAY · 21.06 · FÊTE DE LA MUSIQUE & SOLSTICE
Summer solstice and Fête de la Musique on the same day. The whole city plays for free from morning until late, which means choosing is harder, not easier. Below is the list we would actually plan around.
FLORA Festival ‘26: Opening Session [sweat]
Sunday 21.06 · 4-9 pm · location via @ousia.berlin and t.me/ousiasound · free
OUSIA’s DIY summer series opens. Marylou and Ground Tactics, no fixed venue, 100% renewable power. Address drops on the morning of.
Aldous Harding / Vera Ellen [live]
Sunday 21.06 · 8 pm · Huxleys Neue Welt, Hasenheide 107-113 · €45
Harding’s first record in four years, Train on the Island, played start to finish. Vera Ellen, one of the sharpest writers coming out of New Zealand right now, opens.
Polaris, a project by Jan-Christoph Gockel [watch]
Sunday 21.06 · 7:30 pm · Deutsches Theater, Schumannstraße 13A· €22–38 · In DE with EN surtitles.
Gockel’s piece starts from a real stabbing at an Antarctic research station and pulls documentary footage shot on the continent into the staging. Antarctica ends up carrying the question of what a shared global space still means, and what isolation does to people stuck inside it together.
THE FÊTE DE LA MUSIQUE SHORTLIST
↳ Gretchen Blockparty: Cosmo & untoldency at Gretchen Yard with Islandman, SENU, rines and Deskai. 4-10 pm · Gretchen Yard · free [sweat]
↳ Wooly Aziz at Alte Münze Open House: The Palestinian-Berlin artist solo set while the mint opens its back rooms to the public. 3 pm onwards · Alte Münze, Molkenmarkt 2 · free [frequency]
↳ Hard Wax x Ladieschoiceintl on the HKW terrace: Tausi, Arthur b2b Tapes, Bassdee b2b Felix K. Hard Wax on the roof terrace by the water. 2-10 pm · Weltwirtschaft am HKW · free [sweat]
↳ Refuge Worldwide Free Open Air: Day-long open-air with Aalia Iraki, DJ Hops, elliephunk, Karani. 12-10 pm · Atelier Gardens, Tempelhof · €2 donation [sweat/gather]
↳ Else: XJAZZ on the floor: XJAZZ Festival co-curators behind the decks for an all-day open-air with Allynx, DJ Amir, Christian Prommer and others. 2 pm onwards · Else · free until 9 pm [sweat]
IF YOU SKIP FÊTE DE LA MUSIQUE
↳ PRNCPTL Pool Party by Pornceptual: Debut at a new venue, first one with a pool party; don’t forget the dress code. Noon to 4 am · Maaya, Revalerstr. 99 · €29.50 [sweat]
↳ JUST DUST: The Assembly of the Wetlands of Spreewald: Live Action Role Play and talk in one. Fictional assembly for the Spreewald wetlands and the Sorbian communities at their edge. 2-7 pm · HILDEGARD, Drossener Str. 16, Lichtenberg · free [watch]
↳ African Acid Is The Future: unBLOCK PARTY: Maryisonacid hosting Dauwd, Joe Milli and DJSOULSEEK for a hidden function on the longest day. 4 pm · 90mil, Holzmarktstraße 19-23 · €15 [sweat]
↳ Walter Schels x DIE ZEIT (Artist Talk/Live Podcast): The photographer in conversation about the retrospective that opened two nights earlier. 4-5 pm · C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 22-24 · with the exhibition ticket · In German [watch]
↳ Youth Code + Jess Brett: LA industrial duo live, UK confessional synth-punk supporting. Aufnahme + Wiedergabe with the New Beat Sunday crew before and after. 6 pm · Urban Spree, Revaler Str. 99 · €29 [frequency]
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SAVE THE DATE
Sunn O))) at silent green: CTM presents the new Sunn O))) record in full, drone rebuilt from over 100 guitar tracks blasted into the landscape. Mon 06.07 sold out · Tue 07.07 · 8 pm · silent green/Betonhalle · €45 [frequency]
Spaetistories x KiezKiosk Späti: Schöneberg edition of the outdoor Späti hangs, carpets and a bike shop inside, Max hosting. Free merch and their card game. Wed 24.06 · 6.30 pm · Akazienstraße 18 · free [gather]
Avant Art Festival: Antonina Nowacka + Drew McDowall & Pedro Maia A/V: Nowacka’s vocal pieces are among the strongest works in ambient right now. Drew McDowall (ex-Coil) with Pedro Maia on visuals. 25.06 · 7 pm · silent green Kuppelhalle · €12 [frequency]
Orchestral Sessions at Halle am Berghain: The series asking what the techno cathedral sounds like with strings instead of subs. 26.06 · 8 pm · Halle am Berghain · €47 [frequency]
MISS READ: Berlin Art Book Fair 2026: Three days of independent publishers, artist editions, talks and launches. The closest the city gets to a working room for the art-book community. 26-28.06 · silent green Betonhalle · free entry [shop/gather]
hackedepicciotto: Sonic Morgue: Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) and Danielle de Picciotto in a new piece around drone, narration and slow ritual. 27.06 · 8 pm · silent green Kuppelhalle · €28 [frequency]
Safety Trance: DESTRUCCIÓN A/V + Evita Manji + Bungalovv: The Latin American axis of post-club. 30.06 · 7:30 pm · silent green Betonhalle · €18-22 [frequency]