Holi Festival of Colours Berlin

Holi – The Festival of Colours

The Hindu Holi festival traditionally marks the beginning of spring in India and Nepal: people throw coloured powders at each other to celebrate the victory of spring over winter, of light over darkness. In Berlin, the pop-cultural adaptation – the Holi Festival of Colours – has been taking place since 2012 and has become one of the city's most successful electronic summer festivals. Unlike its religious Indian predecessor, the Berlin version is a music festival with a colour spectacle that attracts thousands of young people between the ages of 16 and 35.

Zentraler Festplatz Reinickendorf

The Zentraler Festplatz at Kurt-Schumacher-Damm 207 in Berlin-Reinickendorf is the city's largest event space for folk festivals and major events. It is located between Jungfernheide and Tegeler See, in the Reinickendorf district, with good connections to the U-Bahn line U7 (Jakob-Kaiser-Platz) and the northern S-Bahn network. Over the course of the year, it hosts summer folk festivals, the Spring Fair (Frühlingsdom), Oktoberfest, and has been home to the Berlin Holi Festival for years.

Program: Music, Colour Throws, Pyrotechnics

Between 12:00 PM and 10:00 PM, electronic dance music – Minimal, House, Tech-House – will be played on multiple stages. Every full hour from 3:00 PM onwards, a 'Big Throw' takes place: at the stage's command, thousands of bags of coloured powder are thrown into the air simultaneously, and for seconds, a cloud of all the colours of the rainbow forms over the dance floor. This is the festival's visual trademark and the reason why Holi has been considered one of the most Instagrammable festival dates on the German calendar for years.

Rules: Powder, Age, Safety

Only the powder sold on-site may be used (€2.50 per bag). Bringing your own powder is forbidden – for safety reasons (toxicity of uncertified products) and to guarantee site cleanliness. Minimum age 16 years, valid photo ID required at entry. Dogs are not allowed, nor is outside food and drink. Most of the powder can be washed out of hair and skin after the festival; light-coloured fabrics may sometimes retain a slight colour tint.

Reinickendorf and Northern Berlin

The Reinickendorf district is located in the northwest of Berlin and, with around 270,000 inhabitants, is one of the most populous districts in the city. With the Zentraler Festplatz, Lake Tegel (Tegeler See), the Tegeler Fließ stream, and large forest areas, it combines folk festival tradition with recreational landscapes. Holi Berlin is part of the district's summer event program and thus part of the festival calendar for the state of Berlin as a whole.