Dark Days Berlin

Goth Culture in an Old Silent Film Cinema

The Theater im Delphi at Gustav-Adolf-Straße 2 in Weißensee is one of Berlin's most atmospheric venues. The former silent film cinema – built in the 1920s and closed for decades – has been carefully restored in recent years and retains the patina of its original function. For Dark Days Berlin, this location becomes the stage for a two-day festival at the intersection of music, literature, and performance.

HEL – Goddess of the Machines from Metropolis

The 2026 festival motto refers to Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927) – the Maschinenmensch HEL, who is considered an icon in Gothic, Industrial, and Dark Wave culture. It fits a venue where silent films were shown in the 1920s and encapsulates the curatorial aim: music from the dark scene in dialogue with literature, poetry, and performance.

What You'll Experience

Dark Days is not intended as a pure concert format. Spread over two days:

• Concerts from Post-Punk, Dark Wave, Industrial, Neoclassicism, and Experimental Pop
• Readings and Spoken Word: Markus Heitz (mahet) – Fantasy and Horror author; ingmar as a poet and musician with "angry, melancholic, longing, ironic, biting, and always dark" poetry
• Performance: including Anke Hachfeld with the premiere "bird – my voice and me"
• A Cappella and Voice: Stimmgewalt, a twelve-member ensemble that develops "dark music without instruments"
• Indie and Post-Punk: Lucina Soteira with Indie-Wave-Rock; Janus with Classical-Jazz hybrids

Theater im Delphi Weißensee

The Delphi is located in Weißensee (Pankow district), a few minutes from the Gustav-Adolf-Straße tram stop. With its restored interior architecture – old stage area, wooden gallery, high ceiling – it is particularly suitable for programs that require atmosphere and silence. For Dark Days, it is the ideal venue: a house that tells its own story.