The Next Day #48: Berlin Weekend Guide
Must-Go Events in Berlin: May 2nd to May 5th. Photo cover: Antonina Nowacka by Marcelina Pieniążek
Around here, we're recovering from May Day but looking forward to the weekend. If you're up for a concert, catch Pina Palau today. On Friday and Saturday, check out the Kiezsalon series at Zionkirsche. We’re curious to catch mòs ensemble live at Donau115.
For parties, we're off to the 'You Mean So Much' party at Plötzensee for some beach dancing. This is 'Museum Sunday,' so don't miss the exhibition celebrating Caspar David Friedrich's 250th anniversary at Alte Nationalgalerie.
Theatertreffen kicks off this week. We recommend Falk Richter's play "The Silence" at Schaubühne.
Plenty is going on... just scroll through the guide and enjoy!
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.
Bye!
Lalai & Mateus
📢 ALERT!!! On May 12th, from 4 - 10 pm, join us for our first event with Estelle Dining, our favorite restaurant in Berlin. Enjoy the yummy Pondji cheese ball (cheese bread), caipirinhas, and natural wine from Sips on Prenzlauer Berg's sunniest terrace and meet the people behind The Next Day. Music curation: Barbara Boeing.
Fotocrime
Thursday, 02.05, 8 pm. Urban Spree, Revaler Strasse 99, 10245 Berlin. Ticket: 15€.
Fotocrime brings monochrome clarity to electronic-meets-organic post-punk with driving bass, chiming guitars, and Patterson's unmistakable baritone. 🎧 Fotocrime seethes with Cold War paranoia, modern-day malaise, and smoky noir.
Pina Palau - Get a Dog Tour
Thursday, 02.05, 7 pm. Kulturhaus Insel Berlin, Alt-Treptow 6, Treptower Park, 12435 Berlin. Ticket: 17,96€.
Pina Palau delves into issues, emotions, and behaviors surrounding pets in her new album "Get a Dog," a delightful collection infused with her indie-folk music.
LYNKS
Thursday, 02.05, 8 pm. Privatclub, Skalitzer Strasse 85, Kreuzberg. Ticket: 29,45€.
Mixing comedy and vulnerability over electro beats, Lynks' shows are pure chaos, blending electro-punk with camp excess, with a pop twist. 🎧 ABOMINATION
Kiezsalon Opening
Fri-Sat, 03-04.05. Doors: 7 pm; Concert: 8 pm. Zionskirche, Zionskirchplatz, Mitte. Ticket: 10,65€/each day.
The Kiezsalon series returns with 46 artists performing throughout the year. The opening is this Friday at the beautiful Zionskirche featuring 🎧 Antonina Nowacka, Josephine Foster, and Ka Baird. On Saturday, you catch 🎧 Valentina Goncharova, Blue Lake, and 🎧 Zoh Amba. Perfect for adventurous music lovers!
mòs ensemble
Friday, 03.05, 8:30 pm. Donau115, Donaustrasse 115, Neukölln. Donation based: 10/20€.
mòs ensemble, formed in 2019, is an eight-piece band defying genre boundaries with rich vocal and instrumental arrangements. Their latest album, 🎧 "Pets & Therapy," showcases their refusal to settle, striking a balance between refinement and exploration. It's a perfect band to wrap up our dreams.
Islands
Friday, 03.05, 7 pm. 8MM Bar, Schönhauser Allee 177 b, Prenzlauer Berg. Ticket: 10,65€.
After a festive May Day, why not treat yourself to a soul-soothing show by Islands? The band blends emotional vocals with pop production, offering a nuanced indie pop experience in their ninth album, 🎧 'And That’s Why Dolphins Lost Their Legs.'
We Got Soul! Sundown
Thursday, 02.05, 4 pm - 1 am. Klunkerkranich, Karl-Marx-Strasse 66, Neukölln Arcaden.
Here you find the perfect place for cocktails at sunset with 🎧 soulful tunes from the golden era of Black music played on vinyl.
Peachy Cosmos Vol. 9
Friday, 03.05, 8 pm - 6 am. Crack Bellmer, Revaler Strasse 99, Friedrichshain. Ticket: 5€.
Party for those seeking a laid-back dance floor with a cool line-up. 🎧 Vio PRG Kenji Tazaki
You Mean So Much w/ Felipe Gordon (Open Air Beach & Indoor)
Saturday, 04.05, 3 - 11:59 pm. Plötzensee, Nordufer 26, 13351, Wedding. Ticket: 9€. It’s recommended to buy in advance to avoid queue.
Beach bash for a sunny day with house and disco music. 🎧 Felipe Gordon
Animalia
Saturday, 04.05, 11:59 - 9 am. OHM, Köpenicker Str. 70, 10179 Berlin. Ticket: 15€.
Renowned Naarm record label Animalia lands at OHM with a live set from 🎧 Polygonia and DJ sets by Acronym, Zara, and founder Kia. Perfect for fans of lush, atmospheric techno.
The Silence
Until Sunday. In German with mobile English surtitles. Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Kurfürstendamm 153, 10709 Berlin. Tickets: 7€ to 49€.
For his autofictional play "The Silence," playwright and theater director Falk Richter explores his family history. His father passed away before having a reconciliatory conversation with the author. The autobiographical blends with the fictional, memories contradict each other, and the possibilities of alternate realities emerge.
Sonic Havoc
Thursday, 02.05, 4-10 pm. Hošek Contemporary, MS Heimatland / Fisherinsel 10179. Ticket: 10/15€
A sonic performance on Berlin's coolest boat. #experimental 🎧 Yung Song
Irena Z. Tomažin & Jule Flierl: U.F.O. – Hommage to Katalin Ladik
Thu-Sun, 02-05.05, 7 pm. Sophiensaele (Festsaal), Sophienstrasse 18 Ticket: 10€/15€. Duration: 1h. English – partly in German, Serbian, Slovenian, Hungarian
"UFO Party" is an homage to Katalin Ladik's radical body art performance, blurring boundaries between poetry, dance, and experimental voice work. It’s a collaboration between the German sound dancer Jule Flierl and Slovenian choreo-vocalist Irena Z. Tomažin.
Ocean Cage
Sat – Tue 04 - 07.05 8 pm. Indonesian with English surtitles. Directed by Tianzhuo Chen, HAU2 Hallesches Ufer 34 10963 Berlin Ticket: 25€.
Director and visual artist Tianzhuo Chen creates an immersive maelstrom through dance, film, and music. Dancer Siko Setyanto takes center stage, accompanied by musicians Kadapat and Nova Ruth. Their mix oscillates between progress and tradition, spirituality and technology.
Sonic Interventions: Stepping on Each Other’s Feet | Improvisation as a Practice
Sunday, 05.05, 4 pm. Savvy Contemporary, Reinickendorfer Str. 17, Wedding. Free admission.
Sonic Interventions is a Berlin diaspora-futuristic band merging Jazz, African, Latin, Hip Hop, Trap, and House rhythms. Their live shows combine meditation, heavy grooves, poetry, and dance, drawing from the cosmos, alchemy, and mythologies.
Unbound: Performance as Rupture
Until 28.07. Free tour on Thursday, 02.05, 7 pm. Julia Stoschek Foundation, Leipziger Str. 60, Mitte. Ticket: 5€, Free admission on Thursday, 6 - 10 pm.
The group exhibition 'Unbound: Performance as Rupture' examines how different generations of artists have called upon the body in relation to the camera to refuse oppressive ideologies, disrupt historical narratives, and unsettle concepts of identity.
Tursic & Mille - Stains, Stars and other Catastrophes
Opening Friday, 03.05, from 6 – 8 pm. Until 01.06. Tue – Sat, 11 am – 6 pm. Galerie Max Hetzler, Goethestrasse 2-3, 10623 Berlin. Free Admission.
Presenting a selection of new paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, Tursic & Mille challenge linear modes of image-making, embracing chance encounters as the essence of art. The result is an eternal negotiation of order and disorder, accident and intent, exploring ‘catastrophe’ as a creative principle. Embracing catastrophe, the artists renew their quest to express the world through paint.
Caspar David Friedrich - Infinite Landscapes
Until 04.08. Tue-Sun 10 am to 6 pm. Alte Nationalgalerie Bodestrasse 10178 Berlin. Ticket: 16€ - Free admission during the #MuseuSunday.
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich's birth (1774–1840), the Alte Nationalgalerie, in collaboration with the Kupferstichkabinettof of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, presents its first major exhibition of the most significant painter of German Romanticism. The exhibition features over sixty paintings and fifty drawings by Friedrich from Germany and abroad.
In Conversation: Ersan Mondtag and Çağla Ilk
Saturday 04.05 3 pm. Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstrasse 50 - 5110557 Berlin. Free admission.
The artist Ersan Mondtag and the curator of the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024, Çağla Ilk, are the guests of the In Conversation series at Hamburger Bahnhof. They will talk about their joint work in Venice and their artistic practice.
Several new exhibitions are happening in the city for Gallery Weekend. Feel free to explore our special guide by neighborhood without restrictions.
Crowrã - The Buriti Flower
Sunday, 05.05, 7 pm. Sinema Transtopia, Lindower Str. 20/22/Haus C, Wedding. Ticket: 7€.
In 1940, two Krahô indigenous children encountered a bull near their village, signaling a brutal massacre by local farmers. In 1969, survivors' children were forced into a military unit during Brazil's dictatorship. Today, amid ongoing threats, the Krahô persist in resisting on their ancestral land.
Pictoplasma Festival
Until Sunday. Exhibitions: 1-3.05, 3-8 pm; 4-05.05, 12-8 pm. Tunnel Betonhalle, transmediale studio. Sunday Open House + Character Market: 05.05, 12-6 pm. Animation Screenings: 05.05, 12:30-5:30 pm. silent green, Gerichtstrasse 35, Wedding.
Pictoplasma Berlin turns 20 and looks back at the beginnings and reflects on the practice of collecting, curating, and promoting character design. The festival has film screenings, exhibitions, a kids’ character workshop, and the Open House and Character Market on Sunday.
Of Now
Until 12.05, Wed/Thu/Sun, 12 - 10 pm; Fri/Sat, 12 - 7 pm. Monopol, Provinzstrasse 40-44, 13409 Berlin. Ticket: 15/30€.
Lumus Instruments' media art exhibition explores the essence of the present through immersive audiovisual installations and performances, offering a journey into timelessness and radical realism. #lightshow
Cheese, Corks & Ceramics
Saturday, 04.05, 2 - 10 pm. Barsega Studio Gallery - Andreasstrasse 49, Friedrichshain. Ticket: 25€ including 3 Pondjis, a handcrafted small ceramic object to keep, and a glass of selected wine.
An afternoon of conscious delight awaits at this event, with chill tunes, refreshing organic wines, authentic Brazilian bites, and beautiful ceramics crafted with natural components and wild clays. Come hang out, shop, vibe, and chill with friends.
Events recommended by our readers
Pottery Classes at Kleistone Studio
04 and 18.05, 10:30 am - 1 pm. Kleistone Studio, Katzbachstrasse 29, 10965 Berlin. Ticket: 150€. The course is held in English.
It's a two-part hand-building class: in the first session, you'll learn how to construct pieces by hand, and in the second session (May 18th), you'll learn how to glaze them using their beautiful studio glazes. Offer: if you book together with a friend, you'll get 10% off the second spot.
🎷 XJazz! Festival! 80 artists will showcase jazz combined with genres such as electro, singer-songwriter, or neoclassical. 06-12.05, Various locations.
🪩 The Future Is Among Us - Moderna Album Release Party with DJs set Jennifer Touch, Joyce Muniz, Skelesys, and Moderna: Thursday, 09.05, 10 pm - 4 am. La Flor, Franz. Str. 15, 10117 Berlin. Ticket: 16,95€.
🎹 The Smile presents the new album 🎧 Wall of Eyes. James Holden will be the opening act. ♡ 11.06, 8 pm. Uber Eats Music Hall. Ticket: 78,40/153,90€.
🌕 Air play Moon Safari: Sunday, 21.07, 7 pm, Zitadelle Spandau. Ticket: 54/82€. 🎧 Moon Safari
🎸 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: 20.05, 8 pm. Columbiahalle. Tickets: 55€. 🎧 The Silver Cord
🎹 Kiasmos - the electronic music duo by Ólafur Arnalds: 31.05, 8 pm. Huxley’s Neue Welt. Tickets: 42,40€.🎧 This is Kiasmos
🎙️ Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown Tour: 02.06, 8 pm. Uber Eats Music Hall. Tickets: Standing 69,75€ / Seat 110/150€. 🎧 The Complete Collection
🎙️ Belle & Sebastian: The indie gems from Scotland are back on stage with two fresh albums in town! Fri, 07.06, 8 pm. Admiralspalast. Tickets: 41,13/55,50€. 🎧Late Developers
🎸 Garbage: Shirley Mason is back! Thu, 04.07, 8 pm. Verti Music Hall. 🎧 Betcha
🎤 Marisa Mont: The Greatest Hits Tour - One of the biggest names in Brazilian MPB. Sunday, 20.10, 8 pm. Tempodrom. Tickets: 49,83/91,85€. 🎧 Portas