available from: www.morgenpost.de

The 25th long night of museums takes place on 29th of August. This year the principal theme of the night is the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall.

Meanwhile this event has become an institution in Berlin. More than 100 museums and exhibitions open their doors to the public twice per year. The visitors have the chance to enjoy and experience exhibitions and collections from 6 pm until 2 am. Moreover, a variety of readings, concerts and plays are presented to the visitors.

The first long night of museums in 2009 took place on 31st of January. Again more than 100 museums, collections, archives, memorials and exhibitions opened their doors for audience. In January the main theme of the event was “World outlooks – World views”.

It is 12 years ago, that the long night of museums took place the first time. But still it remains one of the most popular events – for locals as well as for tourists.

What do you think about the event? Did you visit some of the museums and exhibitions in January 2009 or before? Just tell me about it and leave a comment!

From 14th until 25th of  October 2009 Berlin is illuminated by a very special light. The Festival of Lights turns the capital into a sparkling and colourful city.

A whole range of illuminations and projections light up more than 40 famous landmarks and spaces, including Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Cathedral and radio tower. The spectacle is surrounded by exclusive art and culture events.

Special “lightseeing” tours on the Light-Liner bus, by boat on the Light-Ship, on foot with the Light-Cruso or by rickshaw with the Light-Velo gives locals as well as visitors the chance to experience the colourful illuminations up close.

What about you? Did you experience the Festival of Lights in recent years and have you visited some of the illuminated sights in Berlin? What was you favourite one? Just tell me about it and leave a comment!

Here you can get some nice impressions of the event in recent years.

From 9th until 11th of July 2009 the world’s biggest festival of music and fireworks takes place at the historic Berlin Tempelhof airport.

available from www.pyromusikale.de

During this cultural event seven of the world’s best pyro artists show their skills and talent. The fireworks are perfectly synchronized to the live music of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. The highlight of the show concerning the fireworks is “Hanabi” – the biggest fire flower in the world with up to seven changes of shape and colour and a diameter of up to 500 meters. Furthermore, there are four concerts every day with stars from pop, rock, world and classical music.

Pyroevents offers you a variety of pictures and videos from fireworks which take place all over Germany.

The Pyro-Musikale is something special and a great experience for everybody who likes fireworks combined with good music.

What do you think about these events? Do you think it is worth spending money on it or just a waste of time. Just leave a comment!

available from: www.fetedelamusique.culture.fr

That’s something special. A festival of music which is celebrated all over the world on June 21st. In the calendar that day marks the beginning of summer. The Fête de la Musique – Festival of Music is based on the following principles:

- It takes place every year on June 21st.

- It is a live music festival and a remarkable day for all kinds of music.

- All musicians can participate at the festival but without earning any money.

- All events are open to the public and free of charge.

- The festival is an outdoor event but indoor events are allowed if they accept the  principle of free admission.

In Paris the festival took place for the first time in 1982. Since that time people in 340 cities have been celebrating the Fête de la Musique and thanks to the artists free of charge.

This year Berlin hosts the festival for the fifteens time. From 4 pm the colourful music scene of Berlin cavorts on 76 open air stages in nearly all districts of Berlin and from 10 pm on six inside stages celebrate the “Fête de la Nuit”. Above that, there are street musicians who are allowed to play in all public streets and on squares from 4 pm until 10 pm.

The event covers a wide range of music from classical till jazz, rock and pop, reggae or ska, choral music, hip hop, punk or folklore. The festival is really worth a visit because there is something for everyone. So make a note in your calendar for the 21st of June.

In cooperation with the congress “Buchtage Berlin” the “Great Berlin night of books” takes place since 2005. This year for the first time visitors can experience a unique nighttime programme of literature in the Kulturbrauerei. This event offers music, films and many more specials which represent the variety of the world of books.

Meanwhile more and more artists work cross-border. So musicians have become authors, authors make music, books become films and actors loan their voices to make audio books available.

The event starts on 13th of June at 8 pm and lasts till early morning. During the night you will have the chance to meet and experience authors, poets, audio book maker, musicians as well as film makers and actors. You can see them in readings, discussions and live productions. The programme offers nearly everything from serious till funny, from classical till experimental to present you the diversity of literature.

What is time? Why do we have different languages? How do we love? How works our consciousness? Answers to all these questions you can find on the 13th of June. The masterminds of Berlin and Potsdam await people of all ages who are curious and have the right thirst of knowledge.

There are a variety of themes as great and colourful as our world, e.g. sport, languages, engineering or natural science. The ninth long night of sciences presents more than 2.ooo individual events in 67 different scientific institutions in Berlin and Potsdam. There is something for everyone! Since the events take place in institutions which are located in different areas of Berlin and Potsdam, a shuttle service is established to connect all the different places and to guarantee a fast transport between them.

From 5 pm until 1 am scientists present their area of expertise. They show experiments and try to answer all questions the visitors may have. To find out more about it just click on the picture above (only in German language).

Berlin is a city with a large multicultural population. Among the 3.4 million inhabitants of the German capital 450.000 do not have the German citizenship. Many more have a mixed ethnic background. Over the Whitsun from 29th of May until 1st of June the Carnival of Cultures takes place to celebrate the cultural and ethnic diversity of Berlin.

The idea of the Carnival is the pooling of people with different origin, interests, education, status of live and engagement to create something common or at least just to participate in the celebration.

The initiator and organizer of the Carnival of Cultures in Berlin is the “Werkstatt der Kulturen” (WdK). In 1996 the Carnival in Berlin took place for the first time. Over the last thirteen years, the numbers of participants and visitors from all over the world have risen continously. In 2008, 1.5 million people celebrated at the street festival and the parade. More than 4.000 professional and non-professional performers of all ages took part in the parade on Whitsunday. Another highlight were the colourfully decorated floats. Nearly 900 artists performed during the four-day street festival.

Carnival of Cultures 2008

This year again numerous associations, institutions and individuals have been invited by the WdK to join and celebrate the Carnival of Cultures 2009.

What do you think about the Carnival of Cultures? Did you visit the Carnival in recent years or are you going to join the party for the first time this year? Maybe you experienced something special during the visit? Just tell me about it and leave a comment!

On May 23rd the International Filmlet Festival – FutureShorts and the German Kinemathek are going to host an evening of filmlets as well as a debate on the occassion of the exhibition “We were so free… snap shots 1989/1990″. The exhibition is shown in the Museum of Film and Television near Potsdamer Platz.

The overall theme will be the German reunification. The event will be staged in the Admiralspalast. From the exhibition two films will be shown in attendance of the filmmakers. These films were shot during the German reunification. As a contrast films shot by two young filmmakers from Berlin will be shown, Piotr J. Lewandowski (“Fliegen”) and Arto Sebastian (“Goldene Zeiten”) based on Charles Buckowski.

After the screening there will be an open discussion between the four filmmakers and the audience. They will discuss about their films, the relation between East and West Germany, freedom and bounds as well as the impact of films on politics.

Following the debate the May award-winning FutureShorts programme will be shown including the Golden Bear winner 2009 “Please Say Something” by David O’Reilly. Other films will be “Sugar Water” by Michel Gondry and the winner of the SXSW Festival 2009 “Cattle Call” which was awarded as best experimental filmlet.

On Saturday 16th of May another “Long night of books” is going to take place in the Oranienstraße in Kreuzberg. More than 30 hosts and dozens of authors, publishers, institutions and book stores open their doors and minds to a great variety of guests with more than 100 literary events.

There will be a colourful programme for kids. From late afternoon until midnight and even longer the fans of books aged 14 and older will have the chance to discuss with authors, publishers and translators.

Not to forget the culinary and musical events going on inside and outside to present Kreuzberg on his best behaviour.

Heroes of the night is a group of former students who were inspired by a movie called “Swinger – Heroes of the Night”. That was more than 10 years ago. After watching the movie they thought about it and wanted to do something different from just studying. So they created there own website and started to write about the experiences according to party and lifestyle in Berlin. Meanwhile they have staged a whole range of parties and events in Berlin. On 2nd of May another party will take place in “The Box at the beach” next to the Tiergarten. To read more about it just click on to www.helden-der-nacht.de