About the Festival - Performing Arts Made in Berlin

The Berlin Performing Arts Festival celebrates the diversity of Berlin’s independent performing arts community at numerous theaters and performance venues throughout the entire city. Since 2016, this annual week-long festival has presented the work and artistic positions of Berlin’s performing artists and groups working in all genres.

With LAFT - Landesverband freie darstellende Künste Berlin serving as the organizer, this festival is not curated and is presented by the independent performing arts community itself: Professional artists, groups and performance venues can offer their contributions in response to an open call. Young artists who are new to the community also have the opportunity to present their work within the scope of a curated Newcomer’s Platform.

The festival coordination team works for LAFT Berlin and centrally promotes the festival and the participating productions, both in Berlin as well as internationallyl. The festival’s schedule of events and the productions presented is decentrally organized and financed by the participating performance venues and locations

Performing Arts Festival Berlin

The festival’s schedule of programming is intended both for a Berlin-based audience as well as interested parties and professionals throughout Germany and abroad. The schedule of programming will be supplemented by ancillary programming as well as special formats and events for German and international professionals. 

The goal of the Performing Arts Festival is to present the diversity of the independent performing arts in Berlin and to make them visible within a larger framework as a successor to the 100° Berlin Festival which was held for the last time in February 2015 by Ballhaus Ost, HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Sophiensælen.  

Over the last twelve years, the city of Berlin as well as the independent performing arts community have changed and developed enormously. A vast number of new, international artists and groups have moved to the city and many existing groups have established and professionalized themselves. Numerous new performance venues and locations have opened and the quality as well as quantity of independent productions have increased. 

The former performance venues and organizers of the 100° Berlin Festival have decided to pay tribute to this new situation together with LAFT Berlin with the Performing Arts Festival.

Organizers

The Berlin Performing Arts Festival is organized by LAFT Berlin in cooperation with the performance venues HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Sophiensaele, Ballhaus Ost and Theaterdiscounter.

It represents the interests of its 360 members, including the essential performance venues, groups and independent artists of Berlin, in dealing with politicians and the public. The LAFT Berlin – Berlin State Association for the Independent Performing Arts e.V.  – supports its members through networking activities, consultation, coordination and services.

More information about LAFT Berlin is available at www.laft-berlin.de