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Pop-Kultur Festival is Berlin’s Visionary Music Festival

By Tom Taylor . June 18, 2018

Pop-Kultur brings together the best in alternative sounds from around the globe.

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Pop-Kultur Festival was one of our festival highlights last year, as we witnessed so many special performances from our favourite bands. Prenzlauer Berg’s Kulturbraueri was the perfect setting for seeing shows of all kinds on many different stages and we also loved being able to plunder the nearest späti for beers in between gigs. Oh yeah.

This year, the festival is again taking place at the Kulturbrauerei, between August 15th and August 17th.

The 2018 edition is set to be a banger too. Alongside the incredible musical performances from acts such as Chelsea Wolf and Anna Von Hausswolf, there are also talks, workshops and art installations. Pop-Kultur offers something for all 8 of the senses.

Win tickets to Pop Kultur 2018 here

Berlin Loves You has 1×2 tickets to give away – email us at win@staging-berlinlovesyou.kinsta.cloud with the subject “Pop-Kultur” if you want to enter the competition and we’ll pick a winner at random by July 15th.

Here’s the full programme for this year.

What we’re most excited about seeing at this year’s festival.

Get blown away by Anna Von Hausswolff’s wall of noise


Anna Von Hausswolff almost blew the roof off her stage at last month’s Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. Swedish musician Hausswolff and her band make the kind of crushing, screaming, operatic NOISE that’ll literally scare the bejesus out of you. This is one of many totally essential performance you shouldn’t miss at Pop-Kultur.

Thursday 16th – 8pm – Kesselhaus

Read more about Anna Von Hausswolff here.

Discover dark industrial beats from Columbia

This is darker than we expected. Catalina Santos Ruiz (aka Miarush) has crafted her own unique genre that draws on electro-dance sounds and styles from bands such as Nine Inch Nails and LCD Soundsystem. We’ve never heard such music delivered in the Spanish language before, and it totally works. Put your dancing shoes on for this.

Friday 17th – 7.40pm – Maschinenhaus

Learn more about Miahush here.

Feel proud of Berlin’s music scene with RÁN

We don’t wanna blow smoke up anyone’s asses around here. But, having said that, it’d be disingenuous if we didn’t tell you how good we think RÁN are. They’re one of Berlin’s best bands right now. Clearly some cosmic alchemy is going on between this duo, which consists of soulful singer Laura and whizz guitarist Yair. They’ve just gone into the studio to record their debut album, so expect to hear a few new ones alongside the driving and vicious single ‘Hunt Like Lions’.

Friday 17th – 10pm – Frannz

More about RÁN here.

Wallow in cosmic post-Soviet dream pop with Kedr Livanskiy

Kedr Livanskiy is the brainchild of Russian artist Yana Kedrina. Her sound draws equally from the motorik rhythms of krautrock and the lonely, bare sounds of post-Soviet synthesizer music. She’s crafted her own sound which is refreshingly modern and, to our ears, sounds totally Berlin.

Friday 17th – 9pm – Alte Kantine

Read more about Kedr here.

Confuse yourself with Pranke

Look, we have no idea how this music is written or performed. Pranke – Berliners of the Icelandic variety – make mind-meltingly weird, schizophrenic math-rock. It could be an Icelandic take on Battles, or Don Caballero for that matter. It could also be Dirty Projectors if they were sectioned in a mental institute. We don’t know. Decide for yourself which (if any) pigeonhole this band belong in at Pop-Kultur.

Wednesday 15th – 8pm – Frannz

More confusion here.

Embrace the darkness with Chelsea Wolf

Anna isn’t the only wolf(f) prowling around Pop-Kultur this year. Her big sister Chelsea is making an appearance too. Chelsea Wolfe is going to be an artist that we’ll be talking about for years to come. Her visionary take on goth-metal is both fragile and brutally heavy at the same time. This is an artist with many sides, and we can’t wait to see which one she brings to Pop-Kultur this year.

Wednesday 15th – 9.10pm – Kesselhaus

More info here.

Experience Israeli exotica with Noga Erez


Israeli musician Noga Erez’s performance at last year’s Pop-Kultur was one of our favourites. Tel Aviv-based Erez’s music bravely tackles issues such as sexual violence and manipulative media head-on in a compelling way. She returns this year to Pop-Kultur with a new sound, vibe and an unmissable live performance.

Friday 17th – 12am (midnight) – Frannz

More on Noga Erez here.

Hear how ANDRRA combines Albanian folk sounds with electronica

Berlin-based ANDRRA creates menacing and hypnotic music that references both electronica and the folk music from her native Albania. The result? Well, it’s slightly unnerving… but it totally works. ANDRRA will be performing with a live drummer and synthesizer, and we expect it’s going to sound massive.

Friday 17th – 11pm – Frannz

More info on ANDRRA here.

If you’ve come across adverts for Pop-Kultur Festival over the past few months, you might be wondering why some of your favourite bands have disappeared from the line-up. Let’s not dodge the subject – like last year, the festival has been dogged with cancellations. Many artists have taken exception to Pop-Kultur receiving a piddling amount of funding from the cultural arm of the Israeli government that goes towards travel expenses for Israeli artists. The line-up’s still fantastic though, and respect must go to those bands who have pulled out and those who have had the courage to stay. It’s a very difficult subject.

Pop-Kultur Festival on Facebook.

Tickets are available here.

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