CTM Festival

History

CTM Festival started in 1999 as club transmediale, put together by five friends: Marcus "Marc" Weiser and Lillevan Pobjoy of the electronic duo Rechenzentrum, visual artist Timm Ringewaldt, photographer and lighting engineer Remco Schuurbiers, and experimental media design student Jan Rohlf. The first edition, titled "10 Tage an der Schnittstelle von Bild und Ton" ("10 Days at the Interface of Image and Sound"), ran at Maria am Ostbahnhof, a club that had only just opened in a former GDR post office building. It set the template the festival still follows a quarter-century later: club nights and dancefloor-facing electronic music sitting alongside gallery-style sound art and audiovisual work, rather than treating the two as separate audiences.

The festival's first decade was restless in terms of real estate. It moved to the seventh floor of Haus des Lehrers on Alexanderplatz for its second edition, skipped 2001 entirely, then landed at E-Werk, one of the clubs that had defined Berlin's early-'90s techno explosion, before settling into Maria am Ufer (the renamed Maria am Ostbahnhof building) for most of the 2000s. Behind the scenes, the organizers formalized things by founding DISK, Initiative Bild & Ton e.V., in 2005, giving the festival a proper institutional base, and in 2006 rebranded the event's own self-description from "Festival of Electronic Music and Related Visual Arts" to "Festival of Adventurous Music and Art," widening its remit beyond club-adjacent electronic music. The club transmediale name was shortened to CTM around the 2011/2012 editions, under new artistic director Kristoffer Gansing.

Today CTM runs every January into early February as a ten-day event that mixes late-night club programming with a full daytime schedule of talks, workshops, listening sessions and a dedicated discourse program, plus the RA x CTM conference held in partnership with Resident Advisor. Recent editions have used venues across Berlin including Berghain, the club long treated as techno's most mythologized room, alongside Radialsystem, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and smaller spaces like Morphine Raum. Taking over Berghain's Main Floor, Panorama Bar and Säule for a week each January is now one of the clearest signals of how far CTM's reach extends into Berlin's actual club infrastructure, not just its art institutions.

The festival's 20th anniversary edition in 2019, themed "Persistence," is a useful marker of how far the format had traveled: alongside a lineup that included Yves Tumor, Tirzah, Lotic and Eartheater, the festival installed a functioning ice rink, Eishalle, inside Berghain's Halle space, soundtracked by rotating DJ sets that ran well past the festival's own closing date. It's the kind of gesture that only makes sense for an event that has spent two decades treating a nightclub as legitimate a venue for serious sound art as a concert hall. CTM has also built outward-facing ties over the years, co-founding the ICAS (International Cities of Advanced Sound) network in 2009 and maintaining ongoing partnerships with festivals including MUTEK, Nyege Nyege and Novas Frequências, part of what's kept it positioned as one of the reference points for experimental and club-adjacent electronic music in Europe rather than a strictly local Berlin event.

The 2027 edition is the festival's 28th. It runs from 22 to 31 January under the theme "Process...ing", which CTM frames as a move away from linear, top-down systems toward horizontal frameworks where the process itself becomes the outcome. The first acts were announced on 16 September 2026, and Resident Advisor's report on the announcement named Modeselektor, Kali Malone, Dis Fig, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Kabeaushé, Evil Grimace and Microplastics, with Kontronatura and Debit booked as a back-to-back pairing. RA itself returns with a new programme on the conditions shaping independent electronic music communities, with details still to come. Berghain, RSO.Berlin, Volksbühne, Haus der Visionäre and Morphine Raum appear on the early venue list, alongside Gedächtniskirche, where Kali Malone and Stephen O'Malley present "Burning Song" and Bára Gísladóttir presents "Víddir".

Getting there and practical info

CTM has no single site. It takes over a shifting set of Berlin venues each January, so the practical question is less "how do I get to the festival" than "how do I get to tonight's room". Berghain, the club most people associate with the festival's late-night programming, is the best-known fixed point on the venue list.

• Main club venue: Berghain, Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Berlin (Friedrichshain). It is on the 2027 venue list, with the Main Floor, Panorama Bar and Säule used in previous editions.
• Other venues with addresses (from CTM's 2026 venue list, so check the 2027 map): Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin; RSO.Berlin, Schnellerstraße 137, 12439 Berlin; Haus der Visionäre, Eichenstraße 4A, 12435 Berlin; Volksbühne, Linienstraße 227, 10178 Berlin; silent green, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin; Morphine Raum, Köpenicker Straße 147, 10997 Berlin.
• 2027 venues named so far: HAU1 (Hebbel am Ufer), Gedächtniskirche and Grüner Salon also appear in the 2027 programme, and the full venue map is published on the festival site.
• Getting around: CTM publishes a venue map with a public-transit route link for each venue, and recommends checking elevator status at nearby subway stops through the BVG site if you need step-free access. Berlin Ostbahnhof is the closest main-line station to Berghain, according to travel guides. Berlin's airport is Berlin Brandenburg (BER).
• Tickets: The full CTM Festival Pass is on sale in a regular tier at 195 euros including the service fee, with the early-bird tier sold out and passes limited in number. It excludes "Víddir" by Bára Gísladóttir, "Death by Sun" by Tianzhuo Chen (tickets from 1 December), all workshops and other events still to be announced. Passes and single tickets are sold through the CTM online ticket shop, linked from the festival's own tickets page.
• Age: club events are 18+. Ages 16 to 18 may attend events that end before midnight without an adult at HAU, Haus der Visionäre, Radialsystem, silent green and Volksbühne. Under-16s may enter those venues only with a legal guardian.
• On site: photography is fully banned at Berghain and RSO.Berlin, and flash is not permitted elsewhere. An awareness team in fuchsia shirts works most club events.
• Accessibility: CTM states that all venues are wheelchair accessible apart from a few noted exceptions, and holders of a "Schwerbehindertenausweis" with category B get free entry for one companion if arranged in advance.
• Free events: the 2027 discourse talks at silent green and Grüner Salon, and the Research Networking Day, are listed as free.
• Festival office: based year-round at the ACUD artist centre in Berlin-Mitte.

FAQ

When does CTM Festival happen?

CTM runs annually in late January into early February in Berlin. The 28th edition, themed "Process...ing", runs January 22-31, 2027.

Is CTM only for experimental or "art music" fans?

No. While CTM is known for pushing into sound art, noise and experimental territory, its programming has always included straightforward club nights, and recent editions have run full nights at Berghain, one of the world's best-known techno clubs.

Do I need a separate ticket for the daytime program?

Several discourse events for 2027, including talks at silent green and Grüner Salon and the Research Networking Day, are listed as free. The full festival pass does not cover the "Víddir" and "Death by Sun" performances, workshops or other events still to be announced, which are ticketed separately.

How much is a CTM Festival Pass?

As of October 10, 2026, the regular full pass is 195 euros including the service fee, and the early-bird tier has sold out. Passes are limited in number.

Where can I find the full venue list?

CTM publishes an official venue map each year on its website ahead of the festival, since the lineup of spaces (which has included Berghain, Radialsystem, RSO.Berlin, Haus der Visionäre, Volksbühne and silent green in recent editions) can shift from one edition to the next.

How do I get to CTM venues?

The festival is spread across Berlin, so there is no single route. CTM's website gives a public-transit route link for every venue, and Berlin Ostbahnhof is the closest main-line station to Berghain.

What is the age limit at CTM?

Club events are 18+. Ages 16 to 18 may attend events that end before midnight without an adult at certain venues, and under-16s need a legal guardian.