Bar Italia ・ Pop-Kultur Festival 2026

August 24–30, 2026 | silent green Kulturquartier, Festsaal Kreuzberg, Kulturbrauerei, Pierre Boulez Saal, and more 

Live concerts, experimental music formats, talks, and more. You can look forward to international and local artists, world premieres, and music in all its forms—from large stages to intimate club shows.

Deliberately drawing on rock history and aiming to remind music fans of their favorite cool records from the past is a fine line to walk. It’s easy to drift into empty pastiche or nostalgic retro posturing. But not the British indie band Bar Italia: With their songs, shaped by post-punk and shoegaze sounds, Nina Cristante, Sam Fenton, and Jezmi Tarik Fehmi evoke the defining legends of the ’80s and ’90s—The Cure, Pavement, The Fall—yet they captivate with a contemporary air of inscrutability. This may be because Bar Italia originally emerged from the circle of the enigmatic avant-garde artist Dean Blunt and have adopted his penchant for artfully blurred sounds. Their latest album, *Some Like It Hot* (released on the flagship American indie label Matador)—named after the comedy film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe—stands out precisely because it sheds some light on the melancholic fog. The guitars are more muscular, the melodies easier to grasp, and overall, the band leans more heavily on arena-ready Britpop influences. While Bar Italia’s core aesthetic was still characterized by an enigmatic air of mystery just a few years ago, the band now presents itself with greater self-confidence—a quality that’s also evident on stage.