Summer 2025 Events in Berlin: A Ton of Festivals and Outdoor Fun
Top things to do in Berlin Summer 2025
Nothing is quite epic as a full Berlin summer. What the city lacks in historical edifices, it makes up with an uber sense of modernity, which is manifested in its design ethos, artistic sensibilities and music tastes. Insight Berlin’s list of what’s hot this summer in Berlin, puts you on the right track, in everyone’s favorite European capital city.
Take a tour with Insight Cities
First time in Berlin? Take a tour with us at Insight Cities. Our Berlin Introduction Tour covers all the main sights that signify some of the city’s most significant events, while an expert guide will share the dramatic stories behind them. All our guides not only have bona fides in relevant fields but also convey Berlin’s fascinating eras in a way you can relate to. Book with us today and we’ll match you with the perfect guide.
Culture
Carnival of Cultures – June 6th to 9th, 2025
Centered around Pentecost celebrations in early June, Berlin’s Carnival of Cultures underlines why the city is the cultural and party capital of Europe. A four-day festival of food, music and dance, with inspiration from the world over, it takes place at the Blucherplatz in Kreuzberg, and culminates in a giant final day street parade that ambles across the borough to neighboring Neukölln. Come for Brazilian Samba and Caipirinhas, some Angolan Kizomba and Bombo Assada or just some good old Berliner Wurst and Pilsner, and see how the world can be a better place for a few hours (or days) if we learn to love and respect other’s cultures. The festival’s inclusive message encourages people of all ages and background to attend.
48 Stunden Neukölln – June 28th to 30th, 2025
Berlin’s hippest district Neukölln (move over Kreuzberg), celebrates its fascination for the arts, with the rather quirky and imaginative “48 Hours Neukölln” art festival. As the moniker indicates, it is 48 action-packed hours of artistic endeavors. From street art to murals, conferences, markets and parties, this bottom up, citizen-led initiative, really shows how much culture means to the Berliner identity. This year’s theme covers truth and perception. Unmissable, with options for the whole family!
Festivals
Fete de la Musique – June 21st, 2025
The European Festival of Music, on World Music Day, takes on a particular Berlin flavor. The streets are quite literally filled with the sounds of music, as Berliners and musicians of all genres, ages, shapes and sizes, take to the streets and have a ball. The festival is a refreshing change from all the free techno that abounds in the city, with its focus on live instrumental music.
Kreuzberg Festival – June 27-29, 2025
Every year, Kreuzberg celebrates the diversity of its neighborhood with a street festival. Local food vendors, artisans, and artists sell their wares, while performers of all types take the stage across three days. With the long summer days and convivial neighborhood atmosphere, the Kreuzberg festival is one for the whole family to check out.
Looking to explore more of the Kreuzberg neighborhood? Our Kaleidoscopic Kreuzberg Tour does just that. Starting at Oberbaumbruecke, Berlin’s most beautiful bridge, your urban historian guide will take you through the eastern sections of the neighborhood as well as the sweeping changes Kreuzberg has experienced, from its origins as a working class neighborhood in the 19th century, to an artistic haven attracting the likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, to the immigrant groups that have helped reshape the neighborhood in the past few decades. Along the way you’ll see remnants of the Berlin wall, notable street art, and Berlin’s renowned Markthalle 9. Get in touch with us to get your guide today.
Berlin Pride / Christopher Street Day Parade – July 26th, 2025
Berlin Pride or the Christopher Street Day Parade, as it is colloquially known, gathers close to a million people on the streets in support of equal rights and self-determination. The show makes its way across the city from Kurfürstendamm to the proverbial city gates, Brandenburger Tor, as people walk, dance and drink, in support of the hundreds of floats that make up the parade. The street party begins at noon and officially ends at midnight, before it distills into the streets around Brandenburger Tor. Bring your dancing shoes and remember to stay hydrated.
Berlin’s queer culture dates back well before the 20th century, and the city served as the forefront of advancements in gender theory in the days of the Weimar Republic. Our Queer Berlin tour uncovers much of this hidden history, with stops including the former site of the Institute of sexual Science, founded by magnus Hirschfield, the former el Dorado Cabaret, and the world’s first gay ghetto. Contact us to book your tour now.
Berlin Circus Festival – July 30 to August 10, 2025
The Big Top sets up in the expansive Tempelhofer field for two weeks at the peak of summer. Berlin’s largest festival celebrating the circus arts include local and renowned international acts, with acrobats, jugglers and tightrope walkers performing gravity-defying stunts, pantomimes and clowns entertaining, and dancers showing the flexibility and expressiveness of the human body. Stay tuned for the full program!
Dance in August – August 13–30, 2025
This international contemporary dance festival encourages experimental and innovative choreographies, with many premiere performances as a part of the program. In addition to live performances, discussions, films, and exhibitions help round out the festival.
Atonal – August 27–31, 2025
Atonal underlines why Berlin continues to be at the cutting edge of modern culture. A festival dedicated to the sonic and visual arts, it brings together a variety of progressive and electronic musicians and visual artists. What you get are unique, site-specific audio-visual displays, designed for the show and never repeated, created by some of the biggest names in the business. Atonal takes place at the massive, industrial Kraftwerk complex (a former power station, worth a visit by itself) and is well worth the 150 Euro ticket.
Pop Kultur – August 29th to 31st, 2025
Pop Kultur is an interdisciplinary festival of the arts and music, which gives visitors a chance to see some of the biggest and most creative names in the fields, as well as a peek into what goes on behind the scenes. The festival is made up of three components: Live – with music, lectures, exhibitions and discussions, Talent – where the top talent in the fields come together, and Network – a conference for those in the creative industries; and it provides unique insight into how the cultural industry in Berlin operates. It takes place at the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg, and tickets will sell out well in advance.
Music
Open-air Concert with the Berlin Philharmonic: Latin American Nights – June 28, 2025, 8:15 PM
Every year, the Berlin Philharmonic ends the season with a fantastic open-air concert at the expansive Waldbühne in Olympia Park. This year, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel makes a guest performance as he leads the orchestra through a range of music from or inspired by Latin American tradition.
Klassik Open Air at Britzer Garden – August 30, 2025
Britzer Garden closes out the summer with a bang, marking its 40th anniversary with a spectacular mix of classical and contemporary sounds. The New Frankfurt Philharmonic performs the eclectic program, united in their theme of water, on stage before the lake. The evening concludes with a bombastic fireworks display lighting up the darkening sky.
Special Events
Botanical Night – July 18, 2025
There’s always something magical about visiting a daytime destination at night, and one night a year, the Berlin Botanical Gardens allows visitors to witness that nocturnal magic. Several themed areas illuminate an ethereal atmosphere evoking the enchantment of nature at night.
Long Night of the Museums – August 30, 2025
The Long Night of the Museums gives you a chance to take in as many of Berlin’s museums as you can over the course of a single night. With hundreds of events on offer at 75 different museums, and a shuttle bus that lets you conveniently hop around the city till 2 A.M, plan ahead to make the best of your night. Other cities may have aped its style, but we’ll have you know that it was in Berlin where the idea first emanated. The event is put together by the museums and the city’s cultural department, Kulturprojekte Berlin.
Food and Drink
Street Food auf Achse – Open Sundays from 12 to 6 PM
If you’re tired of the city’s overcrowded and rapidly-gentrifying market halls, look no further than Street Food auf Achse. Despite its tiny Prenzlauer Berg location inside the Kulturbrauerei, this is hands-down the city’s best street food show. With refreshingly different twists on dozens of international cuisines, presented by both amateur and professional chefs, ranging from grandmothers to the occasional Michelin-star awardee, you can’t go wrong here.
African Food Festival – July 13th to 14th, 2025
The African Food Festival is a rager. If you’re looking for your fill of injera, yam and shitto, tagines and countless other exotic African foods, this is where you should focus your attention. Join the city’s various African communities, as they come out for a weekend in the sun, with food, alcohol, great music, dance and lots of love to share. It takes place at the intriguing Wilhelmian industrial complex, the Malzfabrik Schöneberg, this year.
Exhibitions
From Odessa to Berlin: European painting from the 16th to 19th Century at Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – closes June 22, 2025
Get a glimpse of artistic treasures from Eastern Europe in the German capital. Featuring paintings that were evacuated from the Odessa Museum of Eastern and Western Art, this exhibition explores the developments in European painting across four centuries. Exhibited works include paintings by Andreas Achenbach, Francesco Granacci, Frans Hals, Cornelis de Heem, Roelant Savery, Bernardo Strozzi, Alessandro Magnasco and Frits Thaulow.
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind at Gropius Bau – closes August 31, 2025
With an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Yoko Ono has continually pushed the envelope and mixed art and activism in new and often thought-provoking ways. This exhibition puts together over 200 of Ono’s works, consisting of installations, films, music and photography, and explores her impact on contemporary art and culture.
Outdoor fun
Berliner Volkfestsommer – July 25 to August 8, 2025
Summer is hardly complete without a funfair, and Berlin has one right in the middle of summer. Over 60 rides both new and old offer thrills for all ages, with snacks and carnival games that have hardly changed since the first fair over 60 years ago. Located on fairgrounds in the northwest edge of Berlin, it’s a farther jaunt from the center, but definitely offers a full day’s worth of fun.
Kinderbauernhöfe at Görlitzer Park and Pankow – Open daily
Kinderbauernhöfe are Berlin speak for the small urban farmyards that double as petting zoos and activity centers for kids in the summer. Our favorite is the one at Kreuzberg’s Görlitzer Park, which has ample playing space for kids and loads of fun activities to partake in. Make the visit a family fun day, with a roast chicken street food lunch, at the famous Huhnerhaus 36, located at the edge of the park.
Go for a swim in a natural lake
Berlin may be a cosmopolitan capital but it also is full of green spaces and deep-blue lakes – and the swimming lakes are fairly sizeable in themselves. Lake Muggelsee is Berlin’s largest, with space enough for an aquatic playground in the shallow end as well as paddleboarding, sailing and even surfing. You also can’t go wrong with Wansee, with a white-sand beach and chic 1920s architecture.
Picnic at a park with a view
When the sun is high and the air is hot, locals and tourists alike flock to green spaces to wind down and chill out. Berlin is full of parks where you can get out of the heat and still enjoy incredible views of the city. One of our favorites is Victoria Park, which at its higher elevation offers a view of Berlin like no other, along with unique features such as a monument commemorating the victory over Napoleon at the summit, as well as a cascading waterfall.
Monbijoupark and James Simon Park, situated close to the Spree, offer plenty of space and a view of various famous Berlin sights, such as the impressive Berlin Cathedral with its famous domed roof and the TV Tower, which is a landmark of the Berlin skyline.
A picnic in the Tiergarten is also an ideal starting point for sightseeing, as the National Monument of the Wars of Unification is in the center of the park: the famous Victory Column with its bronze statue of Victoria. If you are considering Gleisdreieck park for a picnic in Berlin, there is also a lot from here because it is very nearby to many famous sights such as the Jewish Museum, Checkpoint Charlie, and Potsdamer Platz.
If you want to get more into the weeds of Berlin’s history and culture, contact us at Insight Cities to arrange your tour. We have guides who know Berlin’s rich multicultural heritage and turbulent history inside and out — and are fantastic storytellers on top of it all. Summer is the high touring season in Berlin, so don’t delay and get in touch with us to get your Berlin guide today!