What to do this weekend: Berlin's best events

Friday

9th Irish Festival

Transforming ufaFabrik’s summer stage into a green oasis, the festival showcases music and dance from the heart of the Emerald Isle. Expect a rousing programme featuring an Irish ceilidh and traditional dancing, courtesy of the Berlin dance schools for Irish dance, or just enjoy the music of Nightlark, Tricia Collins Band and Beeswing with Nicole Ohnesorge and Gyula Glaser.

ufaFabrik, Viktoriastraße 10-18 12105 Berlin details

Bite Nite

Bringing together a rich mix of post-punk aesthetic and industrial bonds, Phase Fatales BITE Records presents its Bite Nite and sinks its teeth into the big house. Featuring, among others, the effervescent Rrose, the psychoacoustic phenomena and subtle frequency shifts of Seth Horvitz and a special appearance by Oscar Mulero playing EBM set in the Panorama Bar, the night will ricochet between techno, latin rhythms and new-wave punk.

Berghain and Panorama Bar, At Wriezener Bahnhof 10243 Berlin details

Plan B 2026

Whether you’re a seasoned skater or just here for the good times, Plan B (B for Berlin) is packing the weekend with skate jams, BBQs, workshops, DJs and plenty of community spirit. Taking over Zik, Crazy Legs and Tempelhofer Feld, it’s the kind of weekend where you come for the skating and stay for the vibes, the food and those golden-hour sunsets.

Various Venues details

Saturday

Rave The Planet

It’s hard to imagine that Rave the Planet didn’t exist up until 2022. Now it feels like an annual celebration of dance music and culture that’s been around since day dot. Of course, the elders amongst us will remember the OG Love Parade, but if you didn’t get a chance to experience that, Rave the Planet is the next best thing!

Straße des 17. Juni. details

Free Open Air on Museum Island

This weekend is chock-a-block with music and Berlin is ready to prove once again that it knows how to throw a party. Returning for another year, Kolonnadenbar Summer Festival with Vagabund turns Museum Island into an open-air club, bringing together Mistressandcommander, Emma Ro.zn, Kataya and Surf2Glory for a genre-hopping soundtrack of techno, Italo disco and more. Consider the dance floor officially open.

Kolonnadenhof der Museumsinsel, Bodestr. 1-3, 10178 Berlin details

Sound in the Garden

The Neue Nationalgalerie is turning its sculpture garden into an open-air stage for Sound in the Garden, bringing an eclectic lineup of live music to this iconic setting. Saturday night features Krautrock legend Michael Rother who’ll be playing hits from his bands NEU! and Harmonia, and his solo works. After four nights of concerts, Sunday gets a little more dreamy with sound installations inspired by Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya, whose site-specific fog sculpture will literally blur the lines between art, architecture and atmosphere.

Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Str. 50, 10785 Berlin details

30 years of AMF – Sound + Art + Rituals

Aesthetic Meat Front celebrates 30 years of body rituals featuring a delicious lineup of artists. Alongside living body sculptures and an exhibition tracing three decades of public rituals, featuring photographs by Charles Gatewood and Nika Kramer, they’ll be blood, flesh hook suspension and radical body exploration. That’s one hell of an anniversary party.

ORWOhaus, Frank-Zappa-Straße 19, 12681 Berlin details

Sunday

Berlin Wall Run (100 Meilen)

The Berlin Wall Run is exactly what you think it is: a run along where the Berlin Wall once stood. Since 2011, ‘the Wall Route’ has commemorated the victims of the earlier border, which Germany shared between 1961 and 1989. With a route length of over 161km, it puts the Berlin Marathon to shame and is certainly not a walk in the park. But if you seriously consider yourself a runner, it’s the Lauf you have to aim for.

Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahnsportpark, details

TRAPICANA

Tanz im August is in full spring. TRAPICANA takes a dark, twisted look at cultural authenticity and exotic stereotypes, using Havana’s legendary Tropicana nightclub as its starting point. Blending Afro-Cuban dance with trap music, Tischkau, Jeremy Nedd, Sophie Yukiko and Malpaso Dance Company dismantle tourist-trap fantasies while creating new images of the culture they seek to portray.

HAU1, Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 Berlin details

Latin Food Festival

Swap Berlin for Buenos Aires. Bringing a taste of Latin America to Maaya, the Latin Food Festival is the perfect way to refuel after a weekend of dancing. Tuck into ceviche, tacos, empanadas and arepas while soaking up the serene garden vibes or, if you’re feeling plucky, go for a dip in the pool.