The Gay Wiesn, the queer Oktoberfest that Propaganda Events has run in Berlin since 2008, opens its 2026 season on 19 September and runs to 1 November. Anyone who has been before should note the address, because it is not the one they know.
The Gay Wiesn is part of the Spreewiesn, the beer hall that hosts several Oktoberfest formats across an autumn season. Until 2025 that hall stood at the Postbahnhof in Friedrichshain. The Spreewiesn now announces its 2026 edition at the Hofbräu München Wirtshaus on Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 30, next to Alexanderplatz, where the second event floor is fitted out as the Wiesn hall. For a visitor that is a change of district as much as of address: from an industrial site by the Ostbahnhof to the middle of Mitte, a few minutes from the S-Bahn and U-Bahn interchange.
The move took two attempts. The organiser had planned to put the 2025 hall on Laskerstraße in Friedrichshain and dropped the plan after initiatives in that neighbourhood announced regular protests over gentrification. The Tagesspiegel reported on 27 August 2025 that the organiser called the site far too risky and that the state criminal police office had advised against it. The 2025 season stayed at the Postbahnhof.
Seven dates, and two of them are not Sundays
The season has seven dates rather than a continuous run, which matters if you are booking travel around it. Two are specials: the official queer tapping of the first barrel on Saturday 19 September, and a joint party with Queerwiesn on Friday 25 September. The other five are Sundays, on 4, 11, 18 and 25 October and on 1 November. Each date has a live band, a drag show, hosted games and DJ sets, and the ticket shop lists every date separately.
Tables seat up to ten and are booked with the organiser by email rather than through the shop, which is worth knowing for a group. Individual tickets are sold in advance online, with a box office on the day.
Where it sits in the Berlin autumn
The season overlaps the end of Berlin's busiest queer stretch. Folsom Europe runs from 10 to 13 September, a week before the tapping. The established bars are a ride away from the new hall rather than around the corner from it: Prinzknecht and Heile Welt are in Schöneberg, four U-Bahn stops from Alexanderplatz, and Moebel Olfe is in Kreuzberg. The rights and safety background for visitors is on our Germany page.
Dress is Lederhosen, Dirndl or whatever you turn up in. The organiser describes the event as a space free of prejudice, and says the 2026 season is its nineteenth.
