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Berlin Cathedral in Spring
Berlin Cathedral in Spring © visitBerlin, Foto: Dagmar Schwelle

May Day

Event highlights for Labour Day (1 May)

For Germans, May is the real start of summer, usually with 2-3 long weekends (1 May, Ascension Day, Whitmonday). And Berlin's offering many different events for the first week of May.
We have collected some of the highlights here.

Dance in the 1st of May

Tanzende Menschen bei einem Konzert

You can dance into May in numerous clubs throughout the city on 30 April. Many locations have not yet published their programmes. Here are a few suggestions:

  • The KulturBrauerei invites you to a long party night from 10 pm on 9 floors. 20 DJs will provide the atmosphere!
  • With 6 "Heavy Rawtation" parties, the Astra Kulturhaus kicks off the Dance into May from 11.30 pm.
  • For a pre-glow: Radialsystem V presents the great dance performance safe&sound from 7.30 pm.
  • Mystical: In Mauerpark, the "Peaceful Walpurgis Night" will be celebrated with music and acrobatics.


More nightlife in Berlin

Spring & Street festivals

Visitors celebrate at an open air festival

The German Trade Union Confederation is organising the classic Labour Day rally on 1 May. This is followed by a children's and family festival on the Straße des 17. Juni with food, drinks, games and a giant bouncy castle.

The Berlin Spring Festival offers classic fairground fun. On the central fairground on Kurt-Schumacher-Damm there are stalls and around 80 colourful rides.

At the May festival at the NUSZ children's farm in the ufaFabrik, children and adults have fun with coffee and cake. The programme includes games of skill, pony rides and grilled sausages. 

And on Alice-Salomon-Platz in Hellersdorf, a colourful festival will take place on 1 May.

More tips for children with families

Arts & Culture

Shabbat area at the Jewish Museum Berlin

The exhibition Paris Magnétique ends at the Jewish Museum Berlin with 120 works by Jewish artists who lived and worked in Paris. Contemporary documents illustrate the cosmopolitan life of the Parisian art scene between 1905 and 1940.

On 1 May, the Digital Concert Hall of the Philharmonie will broadcast live from Barcelona the European Concert with conductor Kirill Petrenko and five Berlin Philharmonics. Classics of music history will be performed amidst the spectacular backdrop of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. If you prefer to enjoy music on site at the Berlin Philharmonie, you can listen to the sounds of the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan in the Great Hall on the first evening of May. 

On Labour Day, take a guided tour of the photo exhibition "Double Exposure: Labour Struggles" at the German Historical Museum. Impressive and aesthetically pleasing industrial photographs are examined in detail during a tour with contemporary witnesses.

More Museums in Berlin

Start of the swimming season

Children jumping into a lake

Swimming season? You have read correctly. The fearless have the opportunity to swim in Berlin on 1 May. If there's any doubt, your little toe might do the trick.

If the weather is nice, you can also enjoy the beer garden at the beach baths. To kick off the season, there are all kinds of delicacies and a bouncy castle for children at Strandbad Wendenschloss

What else is going on in Berlin on 1 May is revealed in our calendar of events.