From August 24 to 30, 2026, the Pop Kultur Festival brings around 120 events to various Berlin neighborhoods. Queer music, feminist debates, performance, film, and basketball shape the program.
For seven days, the Pop Kultur Festival links concerts and club music with discussions, performances, and film screenings. Most program items take place on August 28 and 29 on the Kulturbrauerei grounds.
There, among others, the Swedish quartet Boko Yout, the post-punk band Deutsche Laichen, and Toxe with avant-garde club sounds will perform. The lineup also includes Rosa Anschütz, Sassy 009, VAVUNETTHA, deBasement, PVA, Sorvina, Eva Bottega, and gugol maps.
Basketball, Film, and Feminist Fan Culture
The free-to-enter Çaystube in the courtyard of Kulturbrauerei will once again become a meeting point for queer and post-migrant perspectives. Curated by Yeşim Duman, the program features performances by Dis Fig, Sodomland, Lingua Erotika, and Dornika the Poet, as well as DJ sets by Senu and DJ Lesch.
Directly opposite the Çaystube, sport also comes into play. As part of the cultural program for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026, in collaboration with the HereToHoop initiative, a freely accessible basketball court is created. It is part of the “Full Court Femme” format.
The program blends sport and pop culture with a performance by Göksu Kunak and several conversations. Dr. Ireti Amojo speaks about Female Fandom, ALBA player Deeshyra Thomas about the societal power of basketball. Thomas is also the protagonist of the film “The Color of Strength,” which will be shown at the festival.
Already on Monday and Tuesday, August 24 and 25, the discourse program begins. In “Candy Girls & Cheap Seats” Sonja Eismann and Rike van Kleef discuss feminist perspectives on pop, female fan cultures, as well as power relations and inequalities in the music industry.
The panel “Empowerment vs. Reproduction? Queer-feminist Rap, Hyperpop and the Debates around Explicit Pop Culture” asks with Mariybu, Nebouu D’diaye and Julia Gröschel why explicit content by queer and female artists is valued differently than that of men and how pop culture negotiates societal norms.
With “LORECORPS” Anan Fries presents in the Arsenal cinema a Live Essay bridging video games, performance, and concert. In the migas listening bar, the Drag kings Beyefendi and Lilith the Quing invite you to “Queer Pop Bingo.” On Wednesday, Avalon Emerson & the Charm also perform at Silent Green. (dd/pm)
