Pop-Kultur Berlin 2026: Seven Days of Music, Ideas and International Pop Culture
Berlin is about to become even more Berlin.
From 24–30 August 2026, the 12th edition of Pop-Kultur Festival takes over venues and neighbourhoods across the city for seven days of concerts, DJ sets, talks, experimental performances, networking and everything in between. With around 120 programme events, this is much more than a conventional music festival: it’s a snapshot of contemporary pop culture in all its messy, creative, international glory.
The festival’s main programme brings together established names, emerging artists and some decidedly unusual collaborations. Among the highlights are The Notwist, Avalon Emerson & the Charm, Bar Italia, Sophia Kennedy, Sassy 009, Jassin, Rosa Anschütz, GRENZKONTROLLE, Akryl and Boko Yout, alongside dozens of other artists from Berlin and beyond.
But what makes Pop-Kultur particularly interesting is the way it mixes music with ideas and experimentation.
The festival opens with Pop-Kultur Talks, featuring around 20 discussions exploring the issues currently shaping music and society. Topics range from queer-feminist rap and hyperpop to the future of music journalism, cultural diversity, AI and artistic control, the economics of live music, and the question of who actually owns the platforms on which culture now exists.
There is even a talk exploring “Ownership, Attribution, and Artistic Control in the AI Era” — a pretty timely question for anyone involved in the creative industries.
International exchange is another major theme this year. Berlin Outbound brings international curators, festival organisers, journalists and platform operators together with the Berlin music scene, while Sonic Crossings, a collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, puts the spotlight on contemporary pop from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Artists including Laylo, Saya Musa, alystadyn and SAMRATTAMA bring everything from bedroom pop and folk to electronic experimentation and traditional sounds.
The festival also reaches beyond its central venues. In the Neighbourhood, developed with local labels and a booking agency around silent green, brings live music and a free aftershow to Panke. Meanwhile, Pop Up_Berlin 2026, organised with the Association of Independent Music Entrepreneurs (VUT), turns Festsaal Kreuzberg into a label market and networking space for the music industry.
The big live-music weekend arrives on 28 and 29 August, when the festival moves into the Kulturbrauerei. Alongside concerts and DJ sets, visitors can explore the Çaystube, which features a queer and post-migrant programme curated by Yeşim Duman, Pamela Owusu-Brenyah and Christian Morin.
And then there’s Full Court Femme — part basketball court, part cultural programme — combining sport, music, film, panels and community events ahead of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Berlin.
For the grand finale on 30 August, Pop-Kultur heads to the Pierre Boulez Saal for two particularly special performances. Robert Lippok and Anushka Chkheidze present the results of their transnational Berlin-Georgian collaboration, before Icelandic experimental pop pioneers múm close the festival with Sonnenuhr, a new performance combining electronic and acoustic instruments with a string quartet.
In short, Pop-Kultur 2026 is less about fitting neatly into a genre and more about bringing different worlds together — artists and audiences, Berlin and the international scene, music and film, sport and culture, established names and new voices.
Seven days, dozens of venues and around 120 events: Berlin is the stage, and pop culture is the subject.
Tickets available here // Info here (pop-kultur.berlin website)
Featured image Josi Miller Foto: Sonja Madani