Pop-Kultur – Berlin’s iconic multi-disciplinary festival celebrating pop culture in all its forms – kicks off next week with a lineup that stretches across a full seven days for the first time.
The festival, which runs from 24 – 30 August, will open in Wedding with talks and emerging talent showcases before shifting to Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg across the week. The expanded structure follows the success of last year’s decentralised programme, which saw the event spread across multiple venues rather than a single site .
The live programme kicks off on Wednesday, 26 August at silent green’s Betonhalle: LA-ng, followed by Avalon Emerson & the Charm, whose work has shifted from club-focused production towards art pop and electronica-informed songwriting. Bar Italia close the evening with a high-energy set drawing on post-punk, shoegaze and indie rock
Pop-Kultur continues to occupy a unique space among Europe’s experimental arts scene, with a series of commissioned works created especially for the festival. The intimate concert Hall Pierre Boulez Saal is used for the first time as Icelandic legends múm present Sonnenuhr, a new performative work conceived and performed by founding members Gunnar Tynes and Örvar Smárason. Sonnenuhr blends new compositions with specially reworked versions of selected, more introspective pieces from the band and brings together a string quartet, electronic and acoustic instruments.
Alongside the main event, the festival is also helping a new generation build and sustain a career in pop music. Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs connects 150 emerging talents from around the world with artists from Pop-Kultur’s live programme and professionals across the music industry, politics, and creative economy. The programme creates meaningful exchanges and real connections between young musicians, producers, DJs, and creatives in all fields of pop culture – from management, booking, and labels. This year’s edition takes place from 24–25 August at silent green in Berlin-Wedding and on 28 August, participants will also come together for an additional evening of networking and live music at the Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs stage at Frannz Biergarten (Kulturbrauerei).
Looking deep into festival’s programming, here’s our own highlights that justify Pop-Kultur’s reputation as curator and envelope-pusher.
Annie-Claude Deschênes
Saturday, 29 August, 00:30 at Kulturbrauerei (Maschinenhaus)
Known for leading cult Canadian bands Duchess Says and PyPy, Montreal producer and sound artist Annie-Claude Deschênes makes dystopian disco blending music and performance art for a fully immersive, unforgettable, and surreal live experience. With influences spanning the likes of DAF, Ike Yard, Kraftwerk, Suicide, Devo, Lydia Lunch, Six Finger Satellite and Steve Reich, Deschênes has become a key figure in Montréal’s thriving experimental scene with live shows that blur the lines between gigs and club culture. She’s drawn to cold synths, repetitive beats, and emotional intensity try to create something that feels both danceable and confrontational, bringing a physical energy deeply rooted in artistic performance and immersive expression, where movement and visual presence become part of the music itself.
Sofia Kourtesis
Tuesday, 25 August, 20:40 at Silent Green (Kuppelhalle)
Among the many conversations taking place in Berlin this week at Pop-Kultur is a deep dive in the work of Perust Paul Hanford, the Berlin-based Kourtesis will discuss her work and influences, reflects on the changes that have accompanied her career, the intuitive nature of her production process, and the ways personal experience can be translated into sound
Kourtesis – who has emerged as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary electronic music ths decade – released her acclaimed debut album Madres in 2023on, queerness, family, and resilience, revealing just how expansive the emotional reach of dance music can be
deBasement
Saturday, 29 August, 21:20 at Kulturbrauerei (Alte Kantine)
Synth punk band Special Interest’s Alli Logout, and pop producer Margo XS – who’ has worked with the likes of Zara Larsson and Kim Petras – come together as the incredible deBasement, operating at the intersection of club culture and pop. Drawing from their own experiences in New Orleans’ and Montreal’s after-hours nightlife, and the possibilities of queer dancefloors, their project makes space for club music that isn’t overdone and sanitised, but raw, debauched, and real.
Female fandom
Friday, 28 August, 20:00 at Kulturbrauerei (Kino in der Kulturbrauerei, Saal 8)
Just how does female fandom create new forms of belonging? In one of the most fascinating discussions at Pop-Kultur this year, former German international basketball playe Dr Ireti Amojo and communications strategist Sunniva Ferri will explore the potential of fan cultures from a female and FLINTA (Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, and Agender) perspective. The pair will focus on the role that social media and communities play in increasing the visibility of women athletes, and why fans are a crucial force in shaping the future of women’s and FLINTA sport. At the heart of the conversation will be the question of how enthusiasm, identification, and collective support can contribute to cultural and social change.
Ray Lozano
Wednesday, 26 August, 19:20 at Silent Green (Betonhalle)
German-Filipino singer, songwriter and producer Ray Lozano officially opens the music programme at year’s Pop-Kultur Festival with a full-band performance. Since her 2023 debut Pairing Mode, the 37-year-old Lozano has carved her own lane with an approach to composition that values space and economy in the creation a unique sonic universe.
Signed to beats, rap, jazz and soul label Melting Pot – based in her home city of Colonge – Lozano’s approach to releasing mirrors the likes of SAULT – low on promotion, high on visuals.
Boko Yout
Friday, 28 August, 22:00 at Kulturbrauerei (Palais)
Led by Paul Adamah, Swedish noise-disrupters Boko Yout blend post-punk chaos and ancestral storytelling into a sound that builds upon an ecosystem of artistic expression. Last year’s debut GUSTO plays like a long-form therapy session, introducing listeners to Adamah’s alter ego Dr. Gusto, who guides us through shadows of shame toward self-liberation in a world where queer and diasporic identities must fight to be seen, heard, and validated.
Raised in the small Swedish city of Örebro by a Togolese father and Mozambican mother in a predominantly white, Protestant culture, Adamah learned early on what it meant to shapeshift and his band’s sound is rich with subtle electronic accents, alongside nods to Afrobeat and grunge, giving the whole project a distinct flavour that hits straight to the core.
Beaks
Saturday, 29 August, 22:20 at Kulturbrauerei (Maschinenhaus)
Viennese based Beaks – the music project of poet and writer Anna Francesca – offers introspective snapshots of life in her songs, which are informed by dream worlds and the waking subconscious. The talented songwriter has taken path to music via poetry, photography and modelling – working wiht Céline, Vivienne Westwood, Miu Miu, and Chanel – as well as to studying art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She works almost exclusively with friends – making propulsive synth-pop with an indie edge – and feeling her way forward through shared jams, letting simple basslines speak where others would already be overproducing.
Pop-Kultur runs from 24-30 August; find out more at pop-kultur.berlin.
