What is Pop-Kultur?

POP-KULTUR FESTIVAL 2025

25.8 – 30.8.2025

Kulturbrauerei Berlin, silent green, Humboldthain Club and more.

The six-day festival for music, readings, talks, film, art and culture in Berlin.
Pop-Kultur 2025 is bigger, longer and bolder than ever before. New venues across Berlin, new formats, and even more room for all kinds of people who love pop culture as much as we do. No matter if you want to…

• discover rising and established acts from Berlin and beyond
• see Berlin, our city, from new artistic perspectives
• dance the nights away
• network in music and cultural scenes
• join the discourse, share your thoughts, or
• take your music project to the next level

…you’ll find your place at Pop-Kultur Festival 2025.

Pop-Kultur is a hyphen between artists’ perspectives and the society they engage with. First launched in 2015, the festival returns for 2025 in a fully live edition on the grounds of the Kulturbrauerei and at our new locations Silent Green, Club Humboldthain and more. Here, up-and-coming talents from Berlin will perform alongside musicians from countries that are often outside of our Eurocentric focus. Through Commissioned Works receiving their premiere, we engage in dialogue with artists in unconventional ways, allowing ourselves to be confronted or even provoked, but above all, let ourselves be moved. In the midst of the vibrant festival action, the Çaystube is a performative installation offering experience and relaxation – a safer space with its own stage.

In addition to the Nachwuchs and Goethe Talent programmes as well as residency programmes, the programme includes talks, readings and films. In the course of the Pop-Kultur Talks programme, we take a critical look at the current state of the music scene, learning from the past and thinking about a better future.

As part of the project Sonic Crossings, presented in cooperation with the Music Department of the Goethe-Institut and the “Goethe-Institut in Exile” programme, musicians from various pop music scenes in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia will come to Berlin for a short residency in August 2025.

Because just as pop culture would remain at a standstill without discourse, Pop-Kultur as a festival could not continue to develop without it. Topics like gender equity and social criticism, accessibility and awareness, inclusion and integration are not only discursive issues that we want to discuss but also experience them directly on site.

The festival sees itself as a process in which the audience and artists participate along with the team: Collective approaches, post-migrant identities, intersectional discourse, inclusive projects, diasporic narratives, queer perspectives and the departure from musical expectations all contribute to the creation of a space for mutual exchange.

Just as the accessible implementation aims to provide true access and participation for everyone, other creatives from the city’s diverse cultural sector and beyond are encouraged to connect: Berlin organisers provide important local inspiration as part of the series Pop-Kultur Lokal on 26 August.

SELF-CONCEPTION

Pop-Kultur is a space for diversity, where people with different experiences, identities, and backgrounds come together. We remain committed to creating an environment where everyone feels welcome.

We see Pop-Kultur as a cultural space for mutual exchange and open dialogue based on democratic values.

These values include mutual respect and the recognition of social diversity, as well as a firm commitment to combating discrimination in all its forms.

We ask all participants – visitors, partners, artists, guests, and workers – to adhere to these values and to recognise that we are jointly responsible for ensuring that everyone can feel accepted and safe at our festival.

We have a strict zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of discrimination – including ableism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, sexism, trans- and homophobia – as well as all forms of violence – including insults, harassment, threats, bullying, hate speech, and agitation. This is based on the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) and the Berlin State Anti-Discrimination Act (LADG).

Depending on the incident or repeated incidents, we reserve the right to determine who shall be allowed or denied access to the event.

We strive to learn from feedback, experiences, and mistakes. You can contact us at any time: awareness@pop-kultur.berlin

In our Code of Conduct, based on our principles and values, you will find various behavioural guidelines to which we are committed and that we expect all participants at Pop-Kultur to follow. Here is the link to the Code of Conduct.

Pop-Kultur is brought to you by

Funded by

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