Into The Open

"Classical Music Reimagined" – radio eins

"A Festival Beyond Genre Boundaries – Classical Music with a Coolness Factor" – Berliner Morgenpost

“Into the Open” is coming back to Berlin!

Our vision is to let audiences experience classical music anew in exciting settings and to create “multimedia concert experiences” for all the senses. In November 2026 we present the fourth edition of the festival. The human voice takes centre stage: as sound, as story and as the expression of people who want to be heard.

The festival opens on 3 November at the Konzerthaus Berlin with the legendary Georgian Shavnabada Choir, joined by 100 children from Georgia who carry forward the centuries-old tradition of Georgian polyphonic singing. Over the following three evenings, the Kühlhaus Berlin becomes a unique and spectacular venue.

In “Re:trouvailles”, Belarusian flautist and Sakharov Prize laureate Maria Kalesnikava and Ukrainian singer Viktoriia Vitrenko tell of a friendship that endured imprisonment and borders. Soprano Ina Kancheva and musicians from the circle of Jordi Savall take the audience on a night journey aboard the Orient Express to Byzantium. And the award-winning Tanit-Theater brings the relationship between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger to the stage in “Die Dämonie der Liebe”.

ITO Experience

Upon entering the Kühlhaus, an exciting journey into unknown dream worlds begins, guided by video installations, visual art, electronic sounds and delicacies at our bar. The staging of the entrance ritual is an integral part of the festival concept. Admission to the events is one hour before the concert/performance begins each day.

The location

The Kühlhaus Berlin is an industrial monument located in the heart of Berlin in the immediate vicinity of Potsdamer Platz, right next to the Technical Museum Berlin. Built at the turn of the century in 1900, it is now a universal cultural centre that hosts a wide variety of events throughout the year, from readings and concerts to fashion fairs and food markets. The Kühlhaus, with its 6 floors and the Kubus in the middle, provides the ideal setting for our festival and a place where experimentation and reflection are virtually forced upon us. The Kubus makes a wide variety of event formats possible; the musicians can play from hidden galleries, position themselves in the middle like at a boxing match or perform over several floors.