Berliner Festspiele

A total of 62 ensembles from 16 federal states applied with their works for the 13th Tanztreffen der Jugend. This year, the productions on the shotlist represent the full spectrum of production contexts within young dance-making. The nominated works include those from schools, independent theatre companies, municipal and state theatres, as well as dance schools and dance centres.

In June 2026, Sasha Waltz & Guests will be performing the productions Beethoven 7 and In C at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Sasha Waltz & Guests will also be staging a special evening to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut.

In August 2026, the festival Tanz im August will return to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele with several productions. Tickets for Sounding Light are already available. The other productions will be published in June.

The third edition of Reflexes & Reflections, again curated by the political scientist Saba-Nur Cheema and the historian Saba-Nur Cheema, marks the 75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele. As a cultural institution that is linked to Berlin’s eventful history, in their anniversary year the Berliner Festspiele will examine the consequences of the current geopolitical upheaval for open societies.

The exploration of myths and rituals shapes the fourth edition of the Performing Arts Season with works by Marina Abramović, Mario Banushi, Marie Chouinard, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas, Ictus, Bl!ndman, Dumb Type, Damien Jalet / Kohei Nawa and Gisèle Vienne. The programme will be published on 18 June, and advance ticket sales will start.

19 March to 28 June 2026

Working in New York City between the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and the onset of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Peter Hujar captured a pivotal cultural moment in piercing black-and-white photographs. In the exhibition Persistence of Vision, Hujar’s photographs are interspersed with contemporary works by New York City-based artist Liz Deschenes, opening up an intergenerational dialogue on photography. 

Since 14 March 2026

Playing, laughing, making noise, letting off steam, doing nothing – all in an exhibition venue! With BAUBAU, the artist Kerstin Brätsch designed an admission-free play space for kids, where more is allowed than forbidden. On Gropius Bau’s ground floor, colourful wallpapers, structures, objects and open-ended material called “loose parts” configure flexible spaces that are shaped by children’s activities.

19 June to 6 December 2026

For more than five decades, Gabriele Stötzer has been grappling with questions of justice, gender and self-determination. Her own body often plays a central role in her work – not as an object, but as a site of resistance and feminist self-assertion. Opening at Gropius Bau in June 2026, Dabei sein und nicht schweigen will be the artist’s largest institutional solo exhibition to date.

15 April to 30 August 2026

One of the most influential performance artists of all time, Marina Abramović presents Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition at Gropius Bau in spring 2026. The show traces her ongoing engagement with ritual, eroticism, death and the body as a site of political resistance.

In interviews Eun-Me Ahn, Akram Khan and Ligia Lewis discuss their artistic practice and the creation of their recent works, which were presented during the Performing Arts Season 2025/26. Essays and a lecture also offer insights into the significance of dolls in Gisèle Vienne’s work, as well as into the rehearsal process for Thorsten Lensing’s Dancing Idiots.

Through diverse choreographies and forms of expression in contemporary and urban dance, young dancers explored what constitutes their own identity and how it asserts itself in interaction with others. The recordings of the productions invited to the Tanztreffen der Jugend 20245 are available in the media library. 

In conversation with music journalist Peter Margasak and Nadin Deventer, artistic director of Jazzfest Berlin, trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith looks back on more than half a century of “Creative Music”. Also in the Media Library: two films invite viewers behind the scenes of the Jazzfest Community Film Lab.

Find out more about MaerzMusik: recap videos, talks, interviews and portraits have been published in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library.

3sat produces the format Starke Stücke, featuring high‑quality television recordings of four productions invited to the 2026 Theatertreffen. Together with discussions and behind the scenes, they are available in the Berliner Festspiele Mediathek.

On the future of debate culture: The videos of the second edition of “Reflexes & Reflections with lectures, discussions and a late-night programme are available in the Media Library.

At the heart of the productions are current crises, social phenomena, and questions of power and powerlessness. The works respond to the anxieties of the present by articulating demands for the future. The productions and the opening event are available in the media library – each from the following working day after the performance.

Discover background information on Musikfest Berlin 2025, including interviews with selected composers and performers, stories related to the hidden object picture, and audio recordings of selected concerts, which will be available shortly after each event.

The Treffen junge Musikszene 2025 presents a rather young line-up of surprisingly mature, accomplished and experimental musicians, including numerous strong female artists. Recordings of the concerts are available in the media library.

In their 2025 texts, the young authors write about very personal situations and relationships, from issues of social and emotional integration to family histories and everyday observations, to questions about the global situation, politics, the climate, and social or economic injustice. The readings and other events are available in the media library.