The Next Day #98: Berlin Holiday Guide
Must-See Events in Berlin for the May Day Holiday
Hi,
We’re heading into a long weekend that feels like summer, with sunshine and 25°C on Thursday and Friday. May Day in Berlin is a citywide celebration: people take to the streets to protest, dance, or just hang out with friends. Parks, clubs, sidewalks, everything turns into a party. But if you’re in the mood to unwind instead, it’s also the perfect moment to escape into nature or make your first trip to a lake (if you haven’t already).
This weekend’s standouts include Cut Piece by Yoko Ono performed by Peaches at Gropius Bau, the return of Tangerine Dream, and of course, Gallery Weekend, for which we put together a special bike-friendly guide with the best shows by neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Theatertreffen brings 738 productions in the German-speaking region, opening with two highlights: ‘ja nichts ist ok’ by René Pollesch and Bernarda Albas Haus by Katie Mitchell — part of this year’s selection of the 10 most remarkable productions from the German-speaking world.
And lastly, our latest Friday Lunch took us to Salumeria Lamuri in Kreuzberg — a longtime favorite for fresh pasta and laid-back charm. For more tips and weekend finds, follow us on Instagram.
Have a great May Day!
Lalai & Mateus
*Heads up: This guide is quite long — we recommend reading it in your browser for the best experience.
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🎸 CONCERTS
Caoilfhionn Rose + Sonny Casey
Thursday, 01.05, 8 pm. Privatclub, Skalitzer Str. 85–86, Berlin. Ticket: €20 (VVK) / €25 (AK)
Dreamy folk and ambient textures from Manchester’s 🎧 Caoilfhionn Rose, blending piano, synths and sax in a timeless, otherworldly sound. Irish songwriter 🎧 Sonny Casey opens the night. A gentle night to soothe the buzz of May Day.
Tangerine Dream – CONTINUUM Tour
Thursday, 01.05, 8 pm. Admiralspalast-Theater, Friedrichstraße 101, Berlin. Ticket: €50-€72.
Legends of Berlin School and Krautrock, 🎧 Tangerine Dream return with cosmic synthscapes.
Marshall Vincent live at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Friday, 02.05, 7 pm. Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Kapelle), Berlin. Entry: Pay What You Can (suggested €5)
Berlin-based 🎧 Marshall Vincent mixes intimate R&B with touches of orchestral, folk, and electronic sounds.
Shonen Knife – Have a Knife Day Tour
Friday, 02.05, 7:30 pm. Franzz, Kulturbrauerei, Schönhauser Allee 36, Berlin. Ticket: €30.25
🎧 Shonen Knife, pop-punk trio from Osaka, have been thrashing joyfully since the early ’90s. Raw riffs, surreal lyrics, and cult charm for those chasing a night of indie spirit.
Maria Somerville
Friday, 02.05, 8 pm. Kantine am Berghain, Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Berlin. Ticket: €23.50
Dream pop from the Irish west coast: 🎧 Maria Somerville blends ambient textures, soft percussion and nostalgia-soaked melodies.
Peter Doherty – Felt Better Alive in Europe
Friday, 02.05, 8 pm. Huxleys Neue Welt, Hasenheide 108–114, Berlin. Ticket: €44.
I’m not sure how sharp Pete Doherty’s live game is these days, but I used to be a big fan. He’s now clean and reflective, touring his new solo album 🎧 Felt Better Alive.
Kiasmos Hybrid by Janus Rasmussen
Saturday, 03.05, 7 - 11 pm. Modus, Ritterstr. 24–27, Berlin. Ticket: €28.25
Cinematic synths and emotional electronics from Janus Rasmussen in a rare Kiasmos hybrid set.
🎹 EXPERIMENTAL & AMBIENT MUSIC
William Engelen: Godspeed in 4/4 Time
Opening night: Thursday, 01.05, 7 pm. Exhibition runs until 07.09. St. Matthäus-Kirche, Matthäikirchplatz, Berlin. Free entry
This is a living sound installation in which 366 metal tubes transform the church into a musical calendar, blending time, rhythm, and eternity. The opening features live percussion by Evi Filippou, Robyn Schulkowsky, and Marius Wankel, with an introduction by Dr. Sebastian Baden.
SKALAR Live – Christopher Bauder & Kangding Ray
Friday, 02.05, 7 pm & 9:30 pm. Dark Matter, Köpenicker Chaussee 46, Berlin. Ticket: €32.
A synesthetic live ritual of sound and light. Ambient textures and pulsating rhythms form a cathartic journey beyond concert, installation, or meditation.
Ambient Fields: Popol Vuh (Infinity Sessions)
Sat-Sun, 03.05–04.05, 2 pm–8 pm. Reethaus, Köpenicker Chaussee 3a, Berlin. Ticket: €7.50
An immersive 360° sonic journey through the archives of Popol Vuh. Moogs, mantras, and Herzog soundtracks in sacred spatial sound. A Gallery Weekend ritual.
Sanctum of Sound – MaHalla
Sunday, 04.05, 12 pm–10 pm. MaHalla, Wilhelminenhofstr. 76, Berlin. Ticket: €18.10
Ambient, experimental, and sacred sound rituals from Maya Wada, Music Ashram, Dima Ustinov & more. It’s the perfect way to close the holiday in an ecstatic journey.
🪩 PARTIES
Else Open Air: Night Time Edition
Wednesday, 30.04, 5 pm - 6 am. Else, An den Treptowers 10, Berlin. Tickets: €14-€22
An open-air magic party with 🎧 Miura, 🎧 Tom Trago, and 🎧 JAXX TMS. The garden will be open until midnight.
Block Party
Thursday, 01.05, 10 am - 12 am. Riwaq, Skalitzer Str. 68, Kreuzberg.
Laid-back vibes, cool crowd, music, and sun all day long. A cozy First of May celebration away with good music.
Erster Mai at Club der Visionäre
Thursday, 01.05, 12 pm. Club der Visionäre, Am Flutgraben 1, Berlin. Ticket: TBA - arriving early is recommended.
Lazy garden party with 🎧 Die Ueblichen Verdaechtigen and friends on decks. Every year, the same line-up. Those who know, know.
Sound Metaphors
Thursday, 01.05, 12 pm. OST, Alt-Stralau 1, Berlin. Free, but you can donate to help the scene - arriving early is recommended.
All-day rave by the river with indoor and open-air floors, good music, and food. 🎧 Sally C 🎧 Alicia Carrera 🎧 Massimiliano Pagliara
Garten Opening at Berghain
Thursday, 01.05, 12 pm. Berghain Garten, Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Berlin. Free.
If the sun shows up: 🎧 Âme, 🎧 BASHKKA and 🎧 Ogazón open the most sought-after garden in Berlin.
MAYDAY Soundsystem Session
Thursday, 01.05, 12 pm. TBA outdoor location, Berlin. Location and more information to be shared via any of our telegrams — follow this link.
Forest rave vibes with 🎧 Fukinsei, 🎧 FISK and 🎧 soraya. Expect bass, breaks and sweat.
Else May Day
Thursday, 01.05, 2 pm. Else, An den Treptowers 10, Berlin. Free.
Feel-good outdoor energy with 🎧 Jennifer Cardini, 🎧 Axel Boman, 🎧 Angel D’lite.
KOFFÄIN 1. Mai Open Air
Thursday, 01.05, 2 pm - 6 am. Prince Charles, Prinzenstr. 85, Berlin. Ticket: €10-€15
House all day with 🎧 Soela, 🎧 Spencer Parker and 🎧 Lola Luc. KOFFÄIN brings its sunny Mayday vibe back to the Prince Charles yard
Refuge Worldwide May Day Fundraiser
Thursday, 01.05, 2 - 8 pm. Oona Bar, Weserstr. 166, Berlin. Ticket: Donation
Feel-good grooves by 🎧 Musclecars, 🎧 DJSOULSEEK, and more in a street party. Worth stopping by for a drink, the vibe is always good.
Awkward Social Club // May Day Rave
Thursday, 01.05, 4 pm. Fitzroy, Holzmarktstr. 15–18, Berlin. Donation from €5
All profits to War Child. 🎧 Roman Flügel, 🎧 Mariloy, 🎧 DJ Plead, 🎧 Cassius Select play from open air to indoors.
Setten x No_Stone x Jokkoo #1
Friday, 02.05, 9 pm. Panke, Gerichtstr. 23, Berlin. Ticket: €12
Wait for a night of global bass, mutant club, and percussive heat with 🎧 Assyouti, Opoku, 🎧 Viiaan and 🎧 Gavsborg.
ECHO: Evita Manji / Himera
Friday, 02.05, 11:59 pm - 7 am. Lark, Holzmarktstrasse 15-18, 10179. Ticket: €19.75.
Synths, hyperpop, experimental pop and emotional overload with 🎧 Evita Manji, 🎧 Himera, and others.
Hypersoft x HORS-SOL
Saturday, 10.05, 2 pm. OXI, Wiesenweg 1–4, Berlin. Ticket: €20
From cosmic pioneer 🎧 Daniele Baldelli to 🎧 Audrey Danza: a 32h open-air and indoor trip through house, Italo, dubby techno and genre-less joy.
🎭 PERFORMING ARTS
Anton Kats / ILYICH: After Hope
Wed-Sun, 30.04–04.05, 8 pm (Performance) / 12 pm–4 pm (Installation). Sophiensaele – Festsaal, Sophienstraße 18, Berlin. Ticket: €10–25 (Performance, Installation free)
A moving live work mixing performance, concert, and exhibition, exploring hope and rebirth through sound and memory. It’s part of the Gallery Weekend program.
The Silence by Falk Richter
Wed 30.04 to Sun 05.05 – Saturday 03.05, 8 pm (In German with mobile surtitles in English and Czech). Directed by Falk Richter. Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Kurfürstendamm 153, 10709 Berlin. Tickets: €15–€85.
In this autofictional piece, Falk Richter explores intergenerational trauma, memory, and identity through a dialogue with his mother. Blending autobiography and fiction, the play confronts silence, queerness, and the legacy of post-war Germany.
Aida by Benedikt von Peter
Saturday, 03.05, 7:30 pm. Opera in IT with DE and EN surtitles. Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bismarckstrasse 35, 10627 Berlin. Tickets: €26–€108.
Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece transforms into an immersive “requiem to utopia” in Benedikt von Peter’s staging, featuring the orchestra on stage, the chorus dispersed among the audience, and the action unfolding throughout the auditorium—highlighting themes of war, love, and loneliness.
ja nichts ist ok by René Pollesch and Fabian Hinrichs (Theatertreffen)
Sat-Sun, 03-04.05, 7:30 pm. In DE with EN Surtitles. Volksbühne Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, 10178 Berlin. Tickets: €12-€40.
In his final collaboration with René Pollesch, Fabian Hinrichs delivers a sharp, humorous solo performance exploring shared flats, global crises, and human disconnection. Through fast-paced character shifts and absurd dialogue, the play reveals the fragility and yearning of modern life.
Bernarda Albas Haus by Katie Mitchell (Theatertreffen)
Fri-Sat, 02-03.05, 7:30 pm. In DE with EN surtitle. Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin Tickets: €15-€56.
In Bernarda Alba’s Haus, Katie Mitchell’s staging exposes the cruelty of patriarchal control, as mourning becomes a trap of jealousy and violence. Set in a dollhouse-like prison, Lorca’s themes echo sharply through choreography and sound.
🎨 VISUAL ARTS
embrace: Klára Hosnedlová
Opening: Thursday, 01.05, 6–9 pm. Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50–51, 10557 Berlin.
Monumental textile and sculptural installation transforms the museum foyer into a poetic, post-communist dreamscape.
Michael Müller, Ersan Mondtag & Julia Beliaeva
Opening: Thursday, 01.05. Müller & Mondtag: 11 am–6 pm, König St. Agnes, Alexandrinenstr. 118–121, Kreuzberg; Beliaeva: 2 - 8 pm, König Telegraphenamt, Monbijoustr. 13, Mitte.
At St. Agnes, Michael Müller explores Greek myths through painterly fragments, while Ersan Mondtag revisits migrant memory in sculptural form. At Telegraphenamt, Julia Beliaeva recasts classical figures to echo war and survival.
Cut Piece performed by Peaches at Gropius Bau
Friday, 02.05, 8–9 pm. Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin. It’s sold out.
Peaches revives Yoko Ono’s iconic Cut Piece, inviting the audience to a bold performance exploring vulnerability and agency.
Sellerie Weekend Berlin 2025
Fri-Sun, 02.05–04.05, various locations across Berlin. Free entry
The uncommercial, playful counterpart to Gallery Weekend is back. With 100 off-spaces, 555 artists, and 66 events, Sellerie Weekend celebrates Berlin’s independent art scene with exhibitions, performances, and surprises — from altered hotel rooms to disco debates.
Gallery Weekend Berlin 2025
The 21st edition of Gallery Weekend Berlin brings together more than 50 galleries, transforming the city into a vibrant map of contemporary art. All official openings take place on Friday, May 2, from 6 to 9 pm.
Throughout the weekend, galleries remain open on Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4, from 11 am to 7 pm. Below, you finde our handpicked highlights to help you navigate the essential shows and moments of the weekend.
Ruinart x PalaisPopulaire
Thu-Sun, 01.05–04.05, 11 am–6 pm. PalaisPopulaire, Unter den Linden 5, Berlin. Free entry
Art, bubbles, and conversations with nature: Ruinart’s pop-up brings Julian Charrière’s works and a festive spirit to Gallery Weekend.
Art Talks at Neue Nationalgalerie
Fri, 02.05, 11 am - 6 pm; Sat, 03.05, 11 am - 5 pm. Sun, 04.05, 12 - 3:45 pm. Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Str. 50, 10785 Berlin.
Free talks throughout the weekend with artists such as Thomas Struth, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Marianna Simnett, Diane Severin Nguyen, and Sun Yitian. It’s a new public hub for conversation, curated thinking and sharp debates during Gallery Weekend.
Cold Hope by Anne Imhof
Opening: Friday, 02.05, 6–9 pm. Galerie Buchholz, Fasanenstraße 30, 10719 Berlin.
Imhof’s new large-scale paintings blur coming-of-age imagery into ghostly abstraction, echoing her epic performance Doom – House of Hope.
Reverse Alchemy: Dubuffet, Basquiat, Nava + Tom of Finland
Opening: Friday, 02.05, 6–9 pm. Die Tankstelle, Bülowstraße 18, 10783 Berlin.
Pace and Judin open their new space with Dubuffet, Basquiat, Nava’s raw works on paper, and a major Tom of Finland exhibition.
Retrospective by Frank Auerbach
Opening: Friday, 02.05, 6–9 pm. Galerie Michael Werner, Hardenbergstraße 9A, 10623 Berlin.
This first Berlin show after Auerbach’s death spans six decades of portraits and cityscapes, capturing time, presence and the face through dense, sculptural painting.
New Works by Roméo Mivekannin
Opening: Friday, 02.05, 6–9 pm. Galerie Barbara Thumm, Potsdamer Straße 100, 10785 Berlin.
Mivekannin reimagines Orientalist masterpieces, inserting his self-portrait into scenes of power, desire and colonial gaze on elixir-soaked bedsheets.
Photographs by Wim Wenders
Opening: Thursday, 01.05, 6–9 pm. Galerie Bastian, Am Kupfergraben 10, 10117 Berlin.
Wenders’ serene photographs of China and German forests capture light, distance, and memory in silent, poetic compositions influenced by film and landscape.
WANTED by Nadya Tolokonnikova & Rights of Passage by Martha Rosler
Opening: Friday, 02.05, 6–9 pm. Galerie Nagel Draxler & Kabinett, Weydingerstraße 2/4 & Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 33, 10178 Berlin.
Side-by-side shows: Tolokonnikova turns protest into sacred resistance; Rosler captures the stasis of modern life in poetic shots of urban transit.
Solo Exhibition by Hudinilson Jr
Opening: Friday, 02.05, 6–9 pm. KOW, Lindenstraße 35, 10969 Berlin.
A key voice in queer Latin American art, Hudinilson Jr.’s Xerox works and self-images explore intimacy, desire and the politics of the queer gaze.
The lure of looking through a polarised window of opportunities by Olafur Eliasson
Opening: Friday, 02.05, 6–9 pm. neugerriemschneider, Christinenstraße 18–19, 10119 Berlin.
Eliasson’s new light installations use polarized filters and geometric forms to split and shift perception, activated by viewers’ movements through the space.
🍽️ THE NEXT DAY: FRIDAY LUNCH
Salumeria Lamuri
Köpenicker Str. 183, Berlin. Avg. price including wine: €36 pp. Wed- Fri 12-15 & Tue-Sat 18-22.
Our last “Friday Lunch” episode took place at one of our favorite Italian restaurants in Berlin: Salumeria Lamuri. Tucked into Köpenicker Straße, this longtime Kreuzberg gem blends Italian charm with Berlin ease. It once was a butcher shop, and the antique tiles on the walls and floor still tell that story. Today, it’s known for fresh, seasonal pasta, rich antipasti, natural wines, and laid-back service. Tagliatelle al Tartufo, smooth Samodia, and that dreamy Vitello Tonnato — plus terrace tables that fill up fast when the sun’s out.
🍽️ FOOD
PONDJI MAY DAY – Pre-Opening
Thursday, 01.05, 1–8 pm. Mainzer Str. 23, Neukölln, Berlin. Cash only
Pão de queijo, caipirinhas, curbside vibes and DJ sets by @nalamazon & @aline.tima. A Brazilian-style warm-up before doors officially open.
🎬 CINEMA
Vietnam 50! New Wave (88 min)
Wed, 30.04, 9 pm; Sat, 03.05, 9:45 pm; and Wed, 07.05, 9:45 pm. Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, 10178 Berlin. Ticket: €10.
This documentary by Elizabeth Ai dives into 1980s New Wave culture through a Vietnamese-American lens, blending music, memory, and identity.
✨ MISCELLANEOUS
FOMO Berlin x OPN.ART: Soirée – Pre Gallery Weekend
Wednesday, 30.04, 5 pm–10 pm. Location upon registration, Berlin. Free entry (registration required)
Art, dance, and DJs collide in this intimate Pre-Gallery Weekend soirée. Expect a mix of creatives and electronic ballet with Ballet Sur_Real.
Großer Pflanzenverkauf – Berlin
Fri–Sun, 02.05–04.05. Fri-Sat, 10 am–7 pm; Sunday until 4 pm. Kühlhaus, Luckenwalder Str. 3, Berlin. Free entry (card payment only).
Germany’s biggest plant sale returns with 80+ varieties, eco-friendly options, and discounts. A green jungle escape for the weekend.
F*ck the Internet Market – Spring 2025
Sat-Sun, 03.05–04.05, 1 pm–9 pm. Glogauair, Glogauer Str. 16, Berlin. Ticket: €2 (cash only)
Queer & womxn-led design market with DJs, tattoos, toothgems, upcycled fashion, and IRL joy.