Berlin Fairy Tale Days

Germany's Largest Fairy Tale Festival

The Berlin Fairy Tale Days have been Germany's largest festival dedicated to telling and listening to fairy tales since 1990. The organizer is the association MÄRCHENLAND e.V., based at Spreeufer 5 in Berlin-Mitte. Every November, the festival brings together hundreds of events across the city: in schools, kindergartens, libraries, theaters, museums, multi-generational homes, and adult education centers.

Festival Format: Decentralized and Thematic

Unlike most Berlin festivals, this one is not held in a central location but is decentralized throughout the city. Each edition is under an annual motto that connects the individual events. Examples from recent years:

• 2026 (37th): “Magic Flute and Star Harp – Music in Fairy Tales and Stories”
• 2025 (36th): “The Swan Maiden – About Overcoming Obstacles”

The festival thus combines classic fairy tales (Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen) with musical works such as Mozart's The Magic Flute, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, or Sondheim's Into the Woods.

What You'll Experience

Over the three festival weeks, the program includes hundreds of individual events:

• Storytelling Evenings with professional storytellers from Germany and internationally
• Musical Fairy Tales – fairy tales with live music (classical, folk, world music)
• Family Workshops – creative writing, craft afternoons centered around fairy tales
• School and Kindergarten Programs – formats specifically developed for kindergartens and schools
• Readings by contemporary authors
• Theater Performances
• Exhibitions in museums and galleries

Office and Writing Competition

MÄRCHENLAND e.V. not only organizes the festival but also year-round educational programs. This includes an annual writing competition (since 2017), where children and young people can submit their own fairy tales.

Berlin as the Fairy Tale Capital

With the Berlin Fairy Tale Days, the capital positions itself annually as Germany's fairy tale capital – complementing the more southern German focuses like the German Fairy Tale Route. The festival reaches around 80,000 visitors annually, primarily families and schools.