17. March 2025
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C2C Country To Country Berlin 2025 – Splitter and Reprise

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Country To Country 2025 in Berlin is in the books. Three days and the kick-off Bluebird Cafe session are over. While I did a daily splitter during my 2020 coverage, I felt that this time I ease the burden on me a bit, just doing one of these easy and funny news blog around Uber Plaza. Furthermore, time to look back at the festival and take a reprise. Hope you enjoy the posting.

 

Country To Country Berlin 2025 – Splitter

Here are some news around the four days of Berlin.

 

A Mostly Peaceful Communty

I’m always very impressed by the very relaxed and friendly atmosphere at the C2C. Even the sometimes too Berlin-alike charm of the staff and security could not change that. C2C in Berlin also becomes more international. Unfortunately, towards the later evenings at the Uber Eats Music Hall, there were a few incidences with people who disturbed that atmosphere.

 

A Lot of Sun and Fun at Uber Platz

Whoever is responsible out there for the weather – this one is a country music fan. C2C 2025 in Berlin did not see a single drop of rain. This turned the Uber Platz, which also featured the Town Square and the tent for merch and traders into an even more popular place to hang out. Apart from merchandise, the sponsor and vendor booths were very popular. The Town Square Stage was the key area to attract people without hard hat attitude – not only when the local basketball team ALBA Berlin had a match at adjacent Uber Arena on Friday.

 

Berlin Impresses With Line Dancing Skills

Apart from country music artists, the Town Square Stage featured a (free) line dancing course twice daily. While it felt to me that Berlin needs to get a bit of a touch for that on Friday, the skill of the visitors thereafter was really impressing.

 

My Favorite Stage… Comes with a View

My favorite stage of the weekend was the Holler Stage, located in the rooftop bar of the Indigo Hotel. Not only that the British website did a great job hosting the sessions there and introducing the artists in small interviews. The view over the Spree River and the East Side Gallery from there was lovely. Due to the weather, this place (as well as the Rooftop Stage across Uber Platz) was really popular.

 

Meets & Greets

The daytime session in Berlin kept their intimate and familiar character – one of the key features of the whole festival. If there was no tight schedule, practically all artists took photos, signed items and hanged out with the fans. On top of that, C2C had scheduled Meet & Greet sessions at Town Square. Especially the lines for artists who played on Main Stage during the evening, could be rather long. Likely, the longest line was been for Nate Smith on Sunday. It even went out of the whole square.

 

Instant Help for Lonely Cowboys and Cowgirls

The Howdy Board is a nice idea, by the organizers. If you are looking for new contacts, you could post your request on a board at the merchandise tent. As you see on the picture, quite many people made use of that.

 

Country To Country 2026 – Confirmed

The most important news: C2C Berlin will take place in 2026 again. The dates are Friday, 6th, to Sunday, 8th March 2026 (possibly, with another Bluebird Cafe kick-off on Thursday). This will also remove a challenge from this year’s festival: quite a lot of non-local visitors were surprised that shops, especially the ones in the nearby mall were closed on Saturday. Berlin is only one of two German states, which holds International Women’s Day as a public holiday. As stores are generally closed on Sundays (apart from airports, train stations and other exceptions), 8th March 2026 will lead to less confusion.

 

Country To Country Berlin 2025 – My Reprise

First of all, I have to state my key message: in my point of view, C2C Berlin is nowadays already the best of all Country To Country events. The location coming with the familiar atmosphere is great and the infrastructure around, also the one driving the side stages, feels perfect. Of course, the London event has a much wider range of artists – and even some more attractive headliners. However, that comes with a downside in the British capital: the costs are significantly higher. Starting from ticket prices and ending up with hotel prices – traveling to the event one weekend later just comes with a couple of logistic burdens. Berlin also more and more becomes a community meeting and feels very familiar. Of course, you run into many familiar faces at the Thames as well – but Berlin feels more special to me.

Nonetheless, there are some downsides and challenges for the Berlin event I just feel one has to mention. I elaborate on them in the subsections below. I would love to discuss them with you.

 

We are still a Country Music Developing Country

In the United States, country music has already taken quite a long-lasting development with a wide diversification. There is soul-alike country, traditional country, country pop up until country hard rock. Of course, a C2C in Germany should reflect that and showcase a certain range. On the other hand, it is finally still a key event to promote the genre and make it grow further. I simply don’t feel that Germany is already ready for a main stage, which features Tanner Adell, followed by Chase Matthew right thereafter and finishing with Midland. Major parts of the German country music scene are still on the rather traditional side. Country To Country is an event Imajorly) for modern country music, but it should not move too far to the edges of the genre. This will lead to confusion.

 

More European Acts

It is hard to judge from outside how the C2C Berlin in fact works. The labels play a major role, very likely. Nonetheless, I feel that having three European acts (Gareth, Janet Devlin, Sid Bader) is not enough. Even if there will be really big names at the festival one day, in the Dierks Bentley range (like they have in London this year), these artists may easily fill the venue or a bigger arena (see below). But we also need to support the European country music scene. The Nashville acts may boost country music in Germany and other emerging country music countries for a week or a few. The local and regional acts need to be the engine which is driving the development of the genre. Thus, I would have loved that domestic acts like Alina Sebastian or European acts like the First Time Flyers (they do play London…) would have been part of the Berlin lineup as well.

 

Press Work at the C2C – Great during the day, Challenging in the Evening

The proximity of the side stages during daytime is amazing. With the three hotels right next to Uber Platz, it was rather easy to work during the day. Honestly, as you see in my reports, I was majorly busy between 10:30 and some 15:30, so that I had at least little time to prepare for the evening session. While daytime worked well, the Uber Eats Music Hall gigs turned out to be extremely physically and mentally demanding for me. I have been to several major events, especially in sports, and I have to say that I cannot remind of anything which brought me that close to my limits than these three some seven hour daily sessions in the main venue. If the festival wants to grow, it has to improve. I just give you some brief bullet points:

  • There was no press room. That might not feel too much of a biggy, but especially as a photographer, where you cover three songs and then wait for the next artist’s three ones, this creates a lot of waiting time. Instead of either being able to relax or to work at your reports and pictures, you have to wait. Some other factors made it more crucial. Finally, I had no process work time at Uber Eats Music Hall – which means I had less sleep (in total roughly ten hours between Thursday and Monday)
  • There was no opportunity to store your equipment, apart from the wardrobe. The organizers did have a deal with the venue, so that you could store your equipment there for a one-time fee. However, especially during the beginning of the shows with short time slots and the Spotlight stages, did not make it practical. The arena was quite well sold, so running around with a 15kg camera bag on Friday (the other days I reduced that to some 8kg) in a packed arena was not really comfortable. Call me whiny, if you disagree. There is a big difference between a single concert lasting three or four hours max and three consecutive evening sessions after working the full day.
  • Especially in the “pit”, the area between the audience and the stage, many rules set up before were not enforced. The C2C organizers clearly stated that there should not be cell phone recordings and picture taking. Video filming was announced to be limited. None of that was enforced. During a few artists’ sets, the media crews they brought to Berlin were an issue as well. Some acted very rude and aggressive. During the Shaboozy session, I was bumped from behind by a “colleague” running through the pit. I almost dropped one camera and just got a “Take care of your lenses” by that – sorry – moron. Similarly, artists’ media teams felt being “superior” and intentionally stood in front of local photographers.
    I also do understand that social media is important nowadays – but I am not sure while in that situation of the first three songs, which should majorly be for the photographers, artists were allowed to bring social media teams of four or more people recording into the pit as well. It also felt that these people were not briefed – or they just did not care.

 

C2C in Germany – Which Route will it take?

While the press and photographer thing is a very specific one, a really interesting topic to me is which route the festival is taking. Will it rather stay at the concept of being a familar, very easy and comfortable country music festival (which is still dominating the German market) – or does C2C in Germany wants to grow big. The obvious choice and potential is right next door. The Uber Arena would blast the capacity of the evening sessions from currently 4,500 to 17,000 roughly. I can hardly judge how realistic it is to block the arena for three days in that season, as the two key users, ice hockey team Eisbären and basketball team ALBA do have quite busy schedules during these days.

The larger arena would of course offer the potential to have more prominent names and thus also, very likely, more money from ticket sales. This would lead to a more prominent event, which could play a key role to develop the genre in Germany and even in adjacent countries. I don’t want to speculate if the Country To Country organization would “allow” a second “big” event apart from the one at The O2 in London. I am also not into the business deep enough to speculate about what that would mean to C2C Rotterdam, for example. Another issue might be the capacity of the current side stages – they would simply be too small. The O2 comes with arenas like the Indigo, which can accommodate quite a lot of people in the daytime sessions (and even that one is already rather too slow than too large). Would a big event keep the close and “family-alike” atmosphere, which is currently one of the key reasons why I feel that C2C Berlin is currently superior to London.

Also, it would likely also spread the audience as well as the artists to hotels more distant from the arena. I loved having breakfast next to the artist. This would fade. Of course, many of you will also think about ticket prices. Even though I personally think that the ticket prices are comparably low in Berlin, how would it be like in the major arena? I guess that once you moved into Germany’s second largest arena, you can’t go back.

I am quite convinced that within the next couple of years, Semmel Concerts, C2C and all the other entities involved in the process will have to decide on that. Keep it (majorly) as it is now – or make it big? I feel that this one is one of the key questions. Maybe it is already decided, but not communicated. I am really curious how this project will move on.

 

 

Country To Country Berlin 2025 – My Favorite Main Stage Acts

As a lighter part of my posting, I felt like sharing my three favorite acts on Main Stage of Uber Eats Arena with you. They have all been part of the Saturday lineup.

  • Midland
    I saw the Texas country rock band a couple of years ago and was really impressed from how they have improved their play even more. Great instrumental work, lovely harmonies, also on the vocal sides. The stories are good and they are catching the people. Furthermore, they connect. Midland is a band for modern country lovers as well as for rather traditional listeners. To me, they were the key headliners in Berlin, also given the fact that I did not attend the Lainey Wilson show.
  • Dasha
    Dasha is clearly on the modern side of country music. She gave the reason why people love her sound, even if they are not in country music, became obvious on Saturday. Her stage presence is amazing. She has a lot of great and legendary female country artists in their early ages. On the main stage, it was my favorite act to take pictures from, just due to her presence, the way she connects with the people from the stage at her young age already was absolutely amazing and fascinating.
  • Chase Matthew
    To me, he was the biggest surprise during the three days in Berlin. His country-rock style was catching and made the people dance and party from the very beginning. If we see him on a German C2C some time in the future, I believe he will play later in the evening – and with a longer time slot.

 

Country To Country Berlin 2025 – My Favorite Daytime & Spotlight Stage Acts

As there were much more acts on the daytime stages, here are my five favorite acts of the festival. However, I have to state that I haven’ seen all acts during the 2025 C2C Festival in Berlin.

  • The Sad Song Society
    Songwriting mastermind Kenny Foster and his not less talented buddies Tyler Sjöström and Jason Nix were the absolute highlight of the festival. The songwriters round sessions were versatile and all came with different songs. The deep, thoughtful songs in the cinema were a great contrast to other events and sets played around Uber Platz. These guys should definitely get more promotion for their sessions – they absolutely deserve that.
  • Charlie Worsham
    Charlie was the hidden star in the The Bluebird Cafe session on Thursday – and his sets thereafter on the minor stages have been absolutely fascinating. A great songwriter and storyteller as well as a very good guitarist.
  • Kaitlin Butts
    I have to admit that I did not know this alternative country music lady beforehand. However, her Holler Stage session on Sunday has been an absolute blast. Wisely written songs with a lovely touch of humor. I already included one of her songs to my Country Music Playlists – and I am sure that there will be more coverage of her music in here in the future.
  • Gareth
    One of the few European acts (even though he is now based in Nashville). I feel that Gareth is a fascinating artist, I really loved the sets I attended. Look forward to share his views in the Spotlight interview we had.
  • Mary Kutter
    Last, but definitely not least in this list is Mary Kutter. I watched a session of the agile, but very friendly minded artist on Sunday morning – and she blew away all the tiredness of the intense days before. I would love her to be back on European stages soon.

 

Country To Country Berlin 2025 – Flyctory.com Coverage

Here are all postings related to my Country To Country 2025 coverage from Berlin:

 

In addition, I released and will release a couple of Spotlight Interviews in connection with the festival. They are below in choronological order of publication. I will add them once published:

 

Travel in Berlin

Here are all travel postings related to Berlin:

 

Sports 2025

Here are all my Sports postings published in 2025:

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