What’s on in Berlin this week

Where to go in Berlin: events, concerts and shows worth your night

Berlin is the city where the night has no closing time: clubs that run from Friday to Monday morning, three opera houses, one of the world’s great orchestras and a gallery scene spread across former factories, power stations and railway yards. Below is where to go in Berlin when you want to do what locals do, with addresses, and what tends to be on when.

Berlin nightlife: Berghain, Tresor and the clubs along the Spree

Berghain (Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Friedrichshain, berghain.berlin) is the club by which all others are judged: a former power station with techno in the main hall and house upstairs in Panorama Bar, open from Saturday night until Monday morning. The door is famously selective; dress plainly, come in a small group and don’t queue with your phone out. Tresor (Köpenicker Straße 70, 10179 Mitte) is the other founding name of Berlin techno, in the vaults of a former heating plant. Most Berlin clubs open around midnight and peak at 4 am, and the U-Bahn and S-Bahn run all night on Fridays and Saturdays.

Concerts and live music in Berlin

The Berliner Philharmonie (Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Tiergarten, berliner-philharmoniker.de) is home to the Berlin Philharmonic, with free lunchtime concerts in the foyer on Tuesdays during the season. Touring rock and pop plays the Columbiahalle (Columbiadamm 13–21, 10965, by Tempelhofer Feld) and, for the biggest names, the Uber Arena and the Olympiastadion. The smaller rooms in Kreuzberg and Neukölln, along Oranienstraße and Weserstraße, are where the local bands play any night of the week.

Theatre, opera and ballet in Berlin

Berlin has three opera houses: the Staatsoper (Unter den Linden 7, 10117, staatsoper-berlin.de), the Deutsche Oper in Charlottenburg and the Komische Oper, with the Staatsballett dancing at all three. The Volksbühne (Linienstraße 227, 10178, on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz) is the city’s most argued-about theatre, and the Schaubühne in Charlottenburg the most internationally toured; both surtitle in English on selected nights. Seasons run from September to June.

Art galleries and museums in Berlin

Hamburger Bahnhof (Invalidenstraße 50–51, 10557), a former railway station, is the national museum of contemporary art, and the Neue Nationalgalerie (Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785), Mies van der Rohe’s glass pavilion, holds the twentieth-century collection. Museum Island’s five museums are open late on Thursdays. The commercial galleries cluster around Potsdamer Straße in Schöneberg and along Auguststraße in Mitte, with openings on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Berlin festivals and events by season

• Winter: the Berlinale film festival in February, with public screenings across the city, and Christmas markets from late November, the one on Gendarmenmarkt the best known.
• Spring: Gallery Weekend at the end of April, when the galleries open together; the Karneval der Kulturen street parade in Kreuzberg over the Whitsun weekend; and May Day in Kreuzberg.
• Summer: the Fête de la Musique on 21 June, open-air cinema in the parks, and Lollapalooza Berlin at the Olympiastadion in September.
• Autumn: Berlin Art Week in September, the Festival of Lights in October, and the new club season as the outdoor parties move back indoors.

Things to do in Berlin tonight and this weekend

The listings above are the live version of all this: every concert, show, club night and exhibition on in Berlin tonight, tomorrow and this weekend, with times, prices and tickets, updated every hour.