Berliner Hörspielfestival
Festival of the Independent Scene / As part of Featured 2026
Cashmere Radio, Koloniestraße, 13357 Berlin
As space is limited, please sign up by email in advance ([email protected]). We’ll send you the full address once your registration is confirmed.
The Berliner Hörspielfestival of the Independent Scene is a platform and forum for independently produced audio art. Our competitions showcase narrative, documentary, and sonic-art works—as well as everything in between and beyond. The programme is complemented by live acts, installations, audio walks, talks, and interactive participatory formats.
The annual festival will take place from 17—20 SEP 2026 at Akademie der Künste under the theme ›Overdriven.‹ This year, a special focus is on the vibrant scene of independent community radio stations. As a prelude to the festival, and as part of Berlin Art Week, a number of independent Berlin radio stations will open the doors of their ›living rooms‹ on 12 SEP. These Open House events invite audiences to participate, explore, and experience audio art through curated listening programmes, site-specific sound-installation interventions, and live radio broadcasts. The festival will already make an appearance on 11 SEP with a sound art performance as part of the Featured Night programme.
When the limiter no longer kicks in and the system clips, the audio play becomes the ideal space for overdrive. Here, sound can take center stage, voices can waver, and time can stretch or condense. Here, there is room for interference, feedback, and the uncontrollable. The radio play overdrives reality by remixing it. It twists perception until something breaks through.