Pop-Kultur Festival Berlin, August 26: A Night of Sound, Light and Other Worlds
- Anne
- 45 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Our first day at Pop-Kultur Festival takes us through experimental performances, unexpected sounds, and different worlds of music at silent green.
The first thing I noticed at Kino Arsenal was the silence. The room was properly filled, but nobody seemed particularly interested in talking. Instead, the audience appeared almost paralyzed by what was happening in front of them. A cello, flute, guitar and voice were surrounded by electronic sounds and abstract moving images. Water, stones, sunlight and other natural forms appeared on screen while the music seemed to drift rather than follow any familiar structure. This was my first performance of this year’s Pop-Kultur Festival. And it immediately made clear that this was not going to be a night of simply watching bands play.
Silent Green as a festival within the festival
The performance by EDDNA and Equinox unfolded more like a full-body experience. The cello sounded almost completely natural before becoming part of an electronic soundscape. A flute seemed to float above the guitar. At times, the cello provided a rhythm by being plucked, before returning to a supporting melody. The vocals were fragile and powerful at the same time.
There was no obvious verse, chorus or conventional song structure. Everything seemed to happen at once, but somehow nothing felt disconnected. The visuals followed the same feeling. Natural structures – water, stones and sunlight – moved across the screen, while the music seemed to float between acoustic instruments and electronic sounds. At one point, the piano sounded almost ritualistic. Then the audience was invited to sing together. The entire Kino Arsenal joined in. Music, image, space and audience suddenly became one thing.
Moving between the different spaces of Silent Green felt almost like entering a series of separate worlds. The audience was remarkably mixed: different ages, identities and backgrounds, with people who seemed to be there for the music as much as for the art surrounding it.
In the Kuppelhalle, the performance by Fee Aviv, Dubois, Ralph Heidel, Izzy Ment, Shanice Ruby Bennett and Andi Haberl surrounded the audience. People stood in a circle, and the room was packed. Synthesizers met natural instruments and playback sounds. The guitars created a dense wall of sound, while the bass often seemed to control the rhythm more strongly than the drums. Some of the drumming had a distinctly jazzy quality. Above us, visuals of trees, plants and the silhouette of a deer appeared across the dome. Once again, it was difficult to separate the individual elements. The music, the architecture and the visuals seemed to belong to the same piece. That became one of the defining impressions of the night: Pop-Kultur Festival did not always ask you to look at a stage. Sometimes it asked you to step inside the sound.
From immersive sound to the dancefloor
Avalon Emerson & The Charm brought a completely different energy to the Betonhalle. The room was full, the sound louder and denser, and the songs much more immediately danceable. Strong bass, bright synthesizers, drums and clear vocals created a physical pop sound. Behind the musicians, fields, meadows and airplanes appeared on screen. The visuals repeatedly turned the performers into silhouettes, shifting attention away from the individual musicians and towards the atmosphere of the performance. There was a lightness to it, even when the bass hit hard and the lights moved into strobes. The crowd danced and stayed engaged. After the almost meditative atmosphere of Kino Arsenal and the immersive Kuppelhalle performance, the Betonhalle suddenly felt like a completely different world.
Then came VÍZ and Tekla Valy at studio transmediale – perhaps the strangest performance of the night. At first, it seemed as though the performance would happen directly in front of us. Instead, there was only a puppet-like woman sitting in the space. The actual performance was happening in another room, while the sound travelled through the surrounding space. The audience had been deliberately led in the wrong direction.
The music was ritualistic and unsettling, built around a strong voice and layers of synthesizers. There was again no conventional song structure. Halfway through the first piece, the performance moved back towards the room with the "puppet". It felt like a psychedelic horror film - the kind you do not want to leave. It was disturbing, beautiful and completely unpredictable.
And then there was Bar Italia
By the time Bar Italia entered the Betonhalle to “Jolene”, the atmosphere had changed completely. There were no elaborate visuals. No immersive installation. No attempt to blur the boundaries between performer and audience. Just a band. And it worked.
The Betonhalle was packed. The set began with smooth bass and drums, the vocals were clear and strong, and the musicians played with an almost instinctive understanding of each other. After an evening filled with performances that challenged the conventional idea of a concert, Bar Italia offered something much more familiar: musicians on a stage, playing songs to an audience. They were also the most overtly rock-oriented act I saw that night. The crowd responded immediately. For roughly an hour, the band filled the room with music, and it felt as though almost everyone at the festival had ended up there. It was a useful reminder that experimentation does not make traditional performance obsolete. Sometimes the most direct way of connecting with an audience is still simply to play a great set.
More than a festival site
By the end of my first day at Pop-Kultur Festival 2026, I had walked through several rooms at silent green and experienced radically different approaches to music. The walking itself became part of the experience. Moving from one space to another did not just add steps to the evening; it opened up new worlds of sound and art, often in ways I had not encountered before and rarely with such density.
Photos by Indienoxzine
Silent Green itself became part of that experience. The former crematorium has an atmosphere that feels almost removed from the city around it: raw, spacious and strangely intimate at the same time. Its different rooms feel distinct, yet there is a clear thread connecting them. Even the garden offers a place to stop for a moment between performances. It feels less like a conventional festival venue and more like a cultural oasis – a place where music, visual art and experimental performance can exist next to each other without competing for attention. That is perhaps what stayed with me most from my first day at Pop-Kultur Festival 2026. I came expecting concerts. I ended up moving through a collection of different artistic worlds.
And Tonight, It Continues
After a night of experimental performances, unexpected sounds, and plenty of surprises at silent green, Pop-Kultur continues today, August 27, at Festsaal Kreuzberg with a different setting and program.
4:00 p.m. - Label Market
5:00 p.m. - Industry Talk
Evening - Live performances by S. Fidelity, Oska Wald, Maryam.fyi, Toshín, Blake Harley, Painting and INGA BARI
Late evening - DJ set by Marie von der Heydt & Jörg Heidemann
Yesterday took us through quiet cinema rooms, experimental performances, electronic sounds, and a packed Bar Italia show. Today, we’ll be back to see what Pop-Kultur has in store next.
And the best part: admission is free.
INDIENOXZINE is independent and reader-supported. Your support helps us keep discovering and documenting independent music.
Want to discover more from Berlin’s music scene? Explore our Scene Reflections: Berlin, Artist Features and Three Track Week for more music, artists and stories from the city.
Comments