Thursday can start with a swim in the Spree. FLUSS BAD BERLIN has been swimming against the bathing ban all summer, and the next one after this is on election day.
But if I only got to pick two things this weekend, I would pick these. ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U plays Thursday at Haus der Visionäre, shirt off, no apology, for hours. And Saturday at KINDL is the Kiezsalon night I would clear the evening for.
Thursday is the second-to-last Berlin Beats. The series ends on the 27th, and seeing that written down gave me a small ache, because it is hard to read it as anything other than the summer ending too. It has been a really good one.
Tanz im August is our stage pick this weekend, with (LA)HORDE on Thursday.
Saturday is the silent green Sommerfest, and Bjørn Melhus closes the day after with his own lecture performance. I thought “Lost in Finity” was one of the best things I saw this summer, and Sunday is the last chance. Over at Gropius Bau, Marina Abramović was extended by a week and now runs until the 30th, so there is more room than you thought.
Openings are thin this month. Galleries and institutions are holding everything back for Berlin Art Week, 9 to 13 September, and the programme is worth blocking the week for. Sound has a large role in it this year, which I will come back to soon.
One more thing: The Next Table is back, with Abi Lombardi picking a restaurant every week. She starts in Kreuzberg.
Lalai
¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U [frequency]
Thursday · 8 pm · Haus der Visionäre, Eichenstr. 4a · €38
Already flagged as a Save the Date in the last few months, which says something about how far ahead this one was booked. Back from CTM's Exponential Function rave, he treats genre as noise: industrial collapsing into gabber, into anime score, into gqom, without losing the thread. Errorsmith and yungfya open.
Kiezsalon w/ Mind Over Mirrors, Michaela Turcerová and Olga Anna Markowska [frequency]
Saturday · doors 7 pm, from 8 pm · KINDL, Am Sudhaus 3 · €10
Jaime Fennelly returned to Mind Over Mirrors alone last year, after the duo with Haley Fohr and the ensemble years, and Particles, Peds & Pores sets Oberheim synths against harmoniums. Turcerová runs alto saxophone through sine waves, Markowska plays cello and zither. No big names, which is the point.
Après moi, le déluge [watch]
Thu-Sat · 8 pm · Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Schaperstr. 24 · €22-44 · Part of Tanz im August
(LA)HORDE has run the Ballet national de Marseille since 2019, and here twelve of its dancers work a stage that splits open mid-piece, with hybrid figures climbing out of the breach. Hyperrealism and the grotesque in the same room.
FLUSS BADEN: VOLKSBAD throughout Berlin [gather]
Thursday · 4:30 pm changing, 5 pm rally, 5:30–7 pm swimming · Schinkelplatz, Mitte · Free, registration optional
FLUSS BAD BERLIN has spent the summer putting people into the Spreekanal to argue against the blanket bathing ban. Speeches at five, then ninety minutes in the water. Bring a sign and something to float on.
Sheep of Resistance [gather]
Thursday · 7:30 pm–12:30 am · Salöön (Säälchen), Holzmarktstraße 25 · €10-25
The organizer spent four months doing solidarity work with shepherds in Palestine's Jordan Valley, and every euro goes to rebuilding homes, feed, water, and legal costs. Chichi b2b Smugsie open; Burrell Connection closes. Ask at the door, and she will come out and explain the work herself.
MORE ON THURSDAY:
↳ UNCLOUDED: Sound Metaphors play Balearic house and deep-cut disco into the sunset while Circadian pours rare Japanese teas instead of the usual bar. 5–10 pm · Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50 · Free [gather]
↳ Berlin Beats: Regis live feat. Liam Andrews / Sandwell District: Downwards founder Regis plays live with Liam Andrews until eight, then Sandwell District takes the last two hours. 7–10 pm · Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50-51 · Free [frequency]
↳ CLAP & SLAP: A Lithuanian dancer and a Belarusian political refugee spend forty-five minutes on two gestures, clapping and slapping themselves. Part of Tanz im August. Thu-Fri 6 pm, Sat 8 pm · Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33 · €17-25 [watch]
↳ Giri x Rawa Club – Mexican Ambient Night: Latinx collective Rawa brings Mexican artists into an introspective register, away from the dancefloor default. 6 pm–12 am · Giri, Hermannstr. 14 · RSVP - donation-based in cash [frequency]
↳ New Grass: Green Spaces: London, Madrid and Berlin selectors trade ambient and experimental sounds inside Ikii’s hi-fi room. 6–11 pm · Ikii, Herrfurthplatz 8 · €8 [frequency]
Psychic Liberation Night: Niloofar Asghary + Júlia Koffler [frequency]
Friday · 8–10 pm · silent green, Gerichtstraße 35 · €19
Niloofar Asghary works the no-input mixing board as an investigative tool, turning feedback into a way of exposing hidden structure. Nick Klein’s Psychic Liberation series pairs her with Júlia Koffler for a night built around signal and interference rather than song.
KONTEXT 2 YEARS [frequency]
Friday · 8 pm–8 am · Haus der Visionäre, Eichenstr. 4a · €25-35
Twenty-four artists, eleven live acts, four contexts that split at midnight: broken rhythms at Klubhalle, deep trippy techno at Sonnenraum, slow-burn ambient upstairs. Ssaliva plays a rare live show, Buttechno and Triš premiere their joint album The Spirit, and Ulla opens the ambient room.
MORE ON FRIDAY:
↳ Eritrean Anthology Breakfast Show: Eritrean Anthology’s archival project moves to a Friday breakfast slot, tracing rare recordings across the Horn of Africa. 10 am -12 pm · Atemporal, Boxhagener Str. 96 · €7 [gather]
↳ Kiezsalon w/ Suzan Peeters, Yaz Lancaster and Mattias Hållsten: Suzan Peeters makes her Berlin debut on accordion, with Yaz Lancaster on violin and Mattias Hållsten on shō. Doors 7 pm, from 8 pm · KINDL, Am Sudhaus 3 · €10 [frequency]
↳ Picha Congo Fundraiser: Screening and dancefloor raising funds for Lubumbashi’s Picha art center and its biennial, currently in financial trouble. With Sara Persico and Marylou. 9 pm–6 am · Panke, Gerichtstraße 23 · €15 [gather]
↳ SCHMUTZZZ: End of Summer: Oshri’s decade-old drag night returns for an end-of-summer edition, queer-rooted and open to everyone. 10 pm–6 am · Ficken 3000 · €10 [sweat]
↳ arkaoda Final Chapter: First of three farewell nights, with Rabih Beaini, Khidja and Dauwd. Frinda di Lanco takes Saturday, Jensen Interceptor Sunday. Friday & Saturday 10 pm–6 am, Sunday 9 pm–6 am · arkaoda, Karl-Marx-Platz 16 · €12-15 per night [frequency]
200 Years and Counting [look]
Saturday · 12 pm–12 am · C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 22-24 · Free with exhibition ticket (€8-15), registration is required
C/O turns two hundred years of photography into an argument with itself: Kate Crawford’s keynote on what AI slop costs the planet, and a wet plate collodion camera developing portraits in the courtyard all afternoon, first come, first served. Panels between them, shorts at nine.
silent green Sommerfest incl. Sonic Matters VI [gather]
Saturday · 2–8 pm (exhibition open from 11 am) · silent green, Gerichtstraße 35 · Free
The Sonic Matters label market in the studios, Ditty and AV FREYA live, a !K7 set from Terikon on the lawn, and Arsenal's film programme, closing at seven with Denilson Baniwa and Felipe Bragança's Forest of the End of the World. Building tour in English at 3:30.
MORE ON SATURDAY:
↳ saHHara · Raksha: SWANA diaspora night with Chkoba on the side tables and DJs selecting sounds the room itself calls home. 7 pm (bar - DJs after 10 pm) –5 am · Crack Bellmer, Revaler Str. 99 · Free before 10 pm [sweat]
↳ Unkompress Saturday Session: Otuk: Vinyl-only set moving through Turkish and Azerbaijani folk jazz. 9 pm–1 am · Unkompress, Fichtestraße 23 · Free [frequency]
↳ FLORA Festival ‘26, Session 10: Free, solar-powered deep listening outdoors, nomadic; location goes out on Telegram the day before. 5–9 pm · Location TBA · Free [gather]
Music Music – Histoire(s) du Théâtre VII [watch]
Sunday 8 pm · HAU1, Stresemannstraße 29 · €14-30 · Part of Tanz im August (also on Friday, 6 pm and Saturday, 8 pm)
After the group pieces, Harrell comes back alone. Costume usually carries his work; here it is the songs he has used across twenty years, played as archive rather than accompaniment. The humour is still there, and so is his habit of putting distant dance genres in the same room.
MORE ON SUNDAY:
↳ Berlin Drag Festival: Pandora Nox, who won Drag Race Germany, and Soa de Muse from Drag Race France headline a full day with over ten Berlin queens and a queer creators' market. 12–8 pm · Festsaal Kreuzberg, Am Flutgraben 2 · €15 [watch]
↳ 7Fridays x Spilka: Fundraiser for Ukraine: On Ukraine's State Flag Day, borscht, a swap corner, six tattoo artists and a haircut chair, raising money for the Unbroken Center. 2–10 pm · Œlgarten, Schleusenufer 1 · €10-13 [gather]
↳ Sonntags by Lotte Ahoi: Lotte Ahoi curates her own dayrave slot around slothdisco, her funk-leaning answer to house. 2–10 pm · gART.n, Blockdammweg 1 · €15 [sweat]
↳ Pastiche Record Fair: New drops and dead-stock sales with DJs running through the day, standard Sunday digging. 12–7 pm · Pastiche, Weserstr. 46 · Free [gather]
↳ Llar Kitchen: Second pop-up of the series: tacos and tostadas on fresh corn tortillas, ajo blanco to start, and The Rad's wine list to drink alongside it. 4 pm until sold out · The Rad, Friedelstraße 30 · €4-5 per plate [gather]
↳ Bjørn Melhus: LOST IN FINITY – Deadly Fruits: A lecture performance closing Lost in Finity on its last day, tracing a line from the Earth Rise photograph to Weltuntergang. 7 pm · silent green, Gerichtstraße 35 · Free [watch]
Golda Delux
Wed-Sun · 12 - 8:30 pm · Erkelenzdamm 45, Kreuzberg · Berlin
It was my first visit to Berlin, in April 2023, cold and starving, when local friends brought us to Goldadelux, a fine street dining spot in Kreuzberg.
We had their “Sabich the King”, a fluffy steam-baked pita stuffed with veggies, egg, and spice. A wheat pillow melting in my mouth, exploding with Middle Eastern flavor. For dessert: the French Golda, brioche French toast glazed in vanilla rooibos syrup served with a sweet popcorn foam, a bite I still think about sometimes.
The owners asked if I’d write about them one day. Now, back in Berlin, and craving that pillow sandwich weekly, I finally am
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↳ Pop-Kultur 2026 (24-30.08): We flagged the headliners last week. The other half is the commissioned work, which exists nowhere else: Alejandra Cárdenas premieres A Body Like a Home on 28.08, and the SEYYARE Anatolian Women’s Choir sings Now, everybody is on the Road three times on 29.08. Talks open at silent green on the 24th. silent green, Kulturbrauerei, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, Pierre Boulez Saal [live]
↳ Poliça (25.08): Channy Leaneagh’s voice through layers of processing, warmer on the new record than on the early ones. Peter Edel, Berliner Allee 125 · €28 [live]
↳ Forward Festival Berlin (27-28.08): Two days, three stages and fifty speakers at HKW, with Stefan Sagmeister, Gab Bois, Anton & Irene, Mr. Bingo and the Dinamo type team. Steep, unless you are a student under twenty-eight. HKW, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 · €125-295 [gather]
↳ Kraftwerk. Multimedia Tour (28-29.08): The 3D show against the Bauhaus Building, two nights, outdoors. Fifty-six years of Hütter deciding what the future sounds like. Bauhaus Dessau, Gropiusallee 38 · 8 pm · €97 [live]
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