be kind festival: come closer – unplugged
5 & 6 June 2026
Kiezkapelle Neukölln, Neuer Friedhof St. Jacobi
Hermannstr. 99–105, 12051 Berlin
The be kind festival returns – more concentrated, more intimate, more reduced.
Under the title come closer – unplugged, the festival opens its third edition for two days in the Kiezkapelle Neukölln at the Neuer Friedhof St. Jacobi. A place of silence, history, and resonance becomes the setting for a deliberately intimate festival format.
The concerts take place without amplification and in immediate proximity to the audience, while the musicians perform from different positions within the space – fragile, clear, and direct. This creates a setting in which the traditional separation between stage and audience dissolves, allowing for encounters on equal footing.
This year’s line-up brings together six very different artistic positions with DUO KURSAWE / ROVATKAY, ENSEMBLE O, TILO WEBER & MIN YOON, STORMDOG, UWE KROPINSKI, and ENSEMBLE ~Su – ranging from early music, experimental vocal art, contemporary jazz, improvisation, transcultural sound languages, to performative encounter.
Together, they open a space for what music can be in the moment: close, open, and unpredictable.
WORKSHOP Saturday l 06 June l 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm - Free of Charge!
A special highlight this year is the first expansion of the festival into a workshop format. In this way, the be kind festival extends beyond concerts and creates an additional space for participation, movement, and exchange.
With the workshop COMPOST MIX REMIX led by Min Yoon, the “be kind” idea – encountering each other on equal terms – becomes tangible in a new way. Body and perception themselves become the starting point of artistic practice:
Through Butoh dance, we explore interpersonal emotions. The dance combines intense imagery and physical presence with silence and ritual.
The be kind festival remains a place of deceleration – and in the Kiezkapelle it becomes more than ever an invitation to come closer, to listen differently, and to rediscover art as a shared experience.
