Name: Trans Pride Festival – SO36 2026
Start: 2026-08-22T00:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-08-22T00:00:00+00:00
Location: SO36

Trans Pride Festival

About Trans Pride Festival

The Trans Pride Festival is Berlin's ballroom-centric festival for the visibility, empowerment, and celebration of transgender communities. It combines a Kiki Ball competition, workshops, panel talks, and an afterparty at SO36 in Kreuzberg – one of Berlin's oldest queer clubs. The 2025 edition (August 23, 2025) was funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. A 2026 edition has been announced as an annual format; the exact date (typically August) will be announced by the Workdatcxnt collective during the year.

Dates 22 Aug — 22 Aug 2026

Venue Berlin (11000)

Prices —

Status —

Edition 2026

Trans Pride Festival — edition 2026

Tickets →

The 2026 edition of the Trans Pride Festival at SO36 has been announced as an annual format. The exact date (typically August, following Berlin's CSD season) will be announced by the Workdatcxnt Collective and SO36. Expected are a Kiki Ball with multiple competition categories, an afterparty, and free panels and workshops during the day.

The Trans Pride Festival is established as an annual format. In 2025, the edition took place on August 23rd at SO36; for 2026, an August edition is typically expected again, but a specific date had not yet been publicly announced at the time of this entry (May 2026). The SO36 program was viewable without a Trans Pride entry until March 2027; the Workdatcxnt Collective usually plans the format with shorter notice than commercial festivals.

Content-wise, each edition follows the same pattern: Free workshops and panels during the day on ballroom history, HIV prevention, self-care, and queer-trans-specific health topics. In the evening, a Kiki Ball with competition categories (Runway for beginners and transmasculine, Realness, Performance, Vogue, Hands, Arms Control, Open-to-All Battles), followed by an afterparty with DJ sets.

Highlights Trans Pride Festival 2026

Berlin's ballroom-centric trans visibility festival
Kiki Ball with multiple competition categories
Free panels and workshops during the day
Organized by the Workdatcxnt Collective (BIPoC-transmasculine)
Venue: SO36 Kreuzberg, a queer Berlin subculture hub since 1978
Funded in 2024/25 by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion

Programme Trans Pride Festival 2026

Expected Program Structure (Based on 2025 Edition)

Daytime – Free Program Items

Panels on ballroom history and the politics of the trans and BIPoC community
Workshops: HIV prevention, self-care, queer body autonomy
Workdatcxnt podcast recording

Evening – Kiki Ball (Doors open approx. 8:00 PM, competition starts 10:00 PM)

Multiple competition categories: Runway (Beginners, Transmasculine, Realness), Performance (Vogue, Hands, Arms Control), Open-to-All Dance Battles
Judging by international ballroom stars
Total prize money €400 (as of 2025)

Night – Afterparty

DJ sets at SO36, Sound: House, Vogue Beat, Ballroom Classics
Bar with cocktail and alcohol-free cocktail options

Note: The exact date for 2026 will be announced by the Workdatcxnt Collective and SO36 (as of May 2026: not yet public). This entry will be updated once the date is confirmed.

Prices Trans Pride Festival 2026

In previous years, tickets were exclusively available at the box office, cash only: €5 for participants (walking), €10 for the general public. Details for 2026 will be published with the date.

Practical information

Practical information — Trans Pride Festival

Getting There

SO36, Oranienstraße 190, 10999 Berlin (Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, Kreuzberg locality). U-Bahn U1/U3 Görlitzer Bahnhof approx. 5 min. walk. Bus M29.

Tickets

In previous years, tickets were exclusively available at the box office, cash only: €5 for participants, €10 for the general public. Details for 2026 will be published by the collective and SO36 when the festival dates are set.

Organizer

Workdatcxnt Collective. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion (for two consecutive years).

Ballroom as a Political and Artistic Space

Ballroom – originally emerging from the queer BIPoC subculture of New York in the 1980s – is now a global artistic and political movement. In competition formats ('Balls'), performers compete against each other in categories: Vogue, Runway, Hands, Realness, among others. 'Houses' form chosen families that support queer and trans individuals who have experienced discrimination in their families of origin.

Workdatcxnt – Berlin's Transmasculine Voice

The organizer of the Trans Pride Festival is the Berlin-based grassroots collective Workdatcxnt. It describes itself as a platform for BIPoC transmasculine voices in ballroom culture and, in addition to the festival, hosts monthly events, workshops, and a podcast. The collective specifically advocates for transmasculine visibility within the ballroom community, where trans-feminine performers have historically been more prominent.

Kiki Ball Format + Afterparty + Workshops

The festival combines two components: Firstly, the Kiki Ball – a ballroom competition with several categories (Runway, Vogue, Hands, Performance, Realness), where performers compete for prize money and status. Secondly, free panel talks and workshops discussing topics such as ballroom history, HIV prevention, self-care, and queer body autonomy.

SO36 – A Queer Berlin Hub

The main venue is SO36 at Oranienstraße 190 – one of Berlin's oldest and most influential queer clubs, founded in 1978. With its history as a politically aware subcultural space (punk, queer scene, squatters' culture), it is the ideologically and atmospherically fitting location for a festival that combines artistic brilliance and political ambition.