12. March 2026
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Country To Country 2026 in Berlin – My Thoughts

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

After I reduced my coverage of the Country To Country Festival in Berlin from seven posts of the 2025 festival days to three in 2026, I felt it is even more important to have a proper reprise and share my thoughts with you. Here are my conclusions and thoughts about the three days around Uber Plaza in the German capital.

There is a dedicated C2C 2026 Berlin section in the concert galleries. My post is in Pictured Story format, i.e. with major pictures.

 

C2C Berlin 2026 – My Thoughts About Town Square

The Town Square is the heartbeat of the C2C Festival in Berlin (at least during daytime). It features food stand, the (by capacity likely) largest daytime stage and some sponsor and vending booths. Semmel Concerts did some changes and improvements. The open air stage (the only one you don’t need a ticket for…) was put on the trailer of a truck, leading to a really cool style. Furthermore the stage was located South of the big tent this year, facing North (it was vice versa in 2025). I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I feel that artists love that because they typically faced the sun during their performances. However, there are two downsides. First of all, it is the audience now, which is facing the deep sun (and photographers as well). More than that, people who come from East Side Gallery and face Uber Arena heard the music, but did not necessarily see the stage. The whole Town Square also felt more closed up.

I feel that Town Square is key to get people in contact with the genre. Thus, I struggled with the setting a bit. There were a couple of new vendors and services. Axe throwing and beer pong was great. Good old traditions like the Meet & Greet corner (which sometimes comes with really long lines…) or line dancing are based there as well. No place reflects the difference between the events in Berlin and London. The London Town Square is much larger – but it is absolutely packed. Berlin is familiar, you hang out with friends and artists. Not too rarely, there are closer relations between visitors and artists. This place is core – and it is great. Minor adjustments might make it even better, but it is really good already. The only key thing I would change is having acts (and, if you like, line dancing) on stage for a longer time, roughly until the end of the set of the first act on main stage. London does so similarly. The German country scene needs it. That’s the time people have dinner at Uber Square or go to an event at Uber Arena. It would be great if these people could be exposed to country music as well.

 

C2C Berlin 2026 – My Thoughts About The Other Stages

The Berlin event is great during the daytime performances. I absolutely like short distances and cozy venues. Yeah, the capacity may be limited. And there are some venues, which solely give a reasonable view to comparably few visitors, especially the Alex Stage and the Star.FM Stage. It is hard to improve the situation, I guess. However, all daytime stages give a rather close view of the artists. The food prices are reasonable. And even though Uber Eats Music Hall is not one of my very favorite venues, it easily beats The O2, which comes with extreme food prices, partially rather poor views. Even though the hotel prices went up massively the last years, there are also three reasonable hotels. You can quickly move from one venue to the others (if there are no waiting lines…), the staff and security are overall very friendly. London introduced the Yellowstone Yard, which is almost ten minutes away from The O2 – the location is definitely one of the key assets of the event. A nice feature were free snacks at the side stages – thanks for this nice idea.

 

C2C Berlin 2026 – My Thoughts About The Community

C2C Berlin does not feel like a music festival to me. You might be surprised about it, but I more and more compare it with a (trade) fair. Promoters and artists present their products / music, the potential clients / fans are in close contact. You might run into Zach Top and ask for a photo – and you could even have a drink with Kameron Marlowe and his band at the after-show party on Sunday. There is a rather major part of the audience, who also turn these three days (or four, if you include the Bluebird kick-off) into a big family reunion. The atmosphere is very relaxed, you easily make new contacts and friends – and even farewell the security in Uber Eats Music Hall, hoping to see them again in 2027. If one day the festival really moved into Uber Arena, you would have to find a really good concept to keep this spirit alive. It turns the C2C into a great, unique experience. If you touch that, please touch it with extreme care, dear organizers!

 

C2C Berlin 2026 – My Thoughts About The Artists

I significantly reduced my reporting effort in 2026. If I do a “full” coverage of the C2C in Berlin, I at least need a week off thereafter, just to be able to process all the contents and to physically recover. Despite my reduced schedule, including skipping a few main stage artists, the event is extremely intense to me. I did not make watching a few artists who I would have loved to see.

You can’t argue against that compared to the major events in the United Kingdom, Berlin does have the worse line-up. However, the ticket prices overcompensate for it. Of course, London 2026 has Keith Urban, while Berlin “just” featured Kaylee Bell singing about him. But it is still a great event. I prefer scrolling though the daytime stages, exploring new artists over watching the big names. And, I feel, Berlin is superior in that part of your visit.  A special thanks to artists like Kaylee Bell or Max Jackson, who made the long way from Oceania, with partially altered travel plans due to the Middle East conflict. I also love that there are artists like Kenny Foster, who manage being on stage again and again at the C2C in Germany. We all should appreciate that any of these artists could likely make more money if they played a few shows in venues somewhere in North America instead.

 

C2C Berlin 2026 – My Favorite Acts

I’m really thankful for any artist taking the trip to Germany on that weekend. Nonetheless, I felt I have to share my three favorite acts of the weekend. Of course, it is a very personal selection, also influenced by the fact that I did not see some great ones like the Kruse Brothers (who were named very often as a highlight of the weekend). I decided to have my favorite act of the event as a whole, with an additional favorite on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (my overall favorite not included into that)

 

My Favorite C2C 2026 Berlin Act: Sad Song Society

If this event is dying, C2C is loosing its spirit in my point of view. Kenny Foster and Tyler Sjöström do an amazing daily show with deep, sometimes dark country songs. In 2026, they were accompanied by Nathan Evans Fox. The event at the movie theater Sound of Nashville stage is unique and praises the energy of songwriting. I love these guys, the show is a great contrast, which also comes with a lot of entertainment and fun.

 

My Friday Favorite C2C 2026 Berlin Act: Max Jackson

Maybe, I could name one or two artists, who did a better, more energetic performance on that first day. But on these three days I felt that nobody beat Max in regards of the enjoy, fun and spirit being on stage. You could feel her being proud of being Berlin at each and every of her six sets on his weekend. I loved watching her – and thus, she definitely deserved this mention!

 

My Saturday Favorite C2C 2026 Berlin Act: First Time Flyers

These guys were amazing! Unfortunately, the First Time Flyers had two gigs on Saturday. Their vocal country gave a touch of Lady A. and Little Big Town in Berlin. Somehow, the British artists feel like a supergroup of U.K. country. I am sure Europe will love these guys even more during the upcoming months and years.

 

My Sunday Favorite C2C 2026 Berlin Act: Kameron Marlowe

Kameron had a difficult task on Sunday on Mainstage in Uber Eats Music Hall. The first three artists of the day had limited success in energizing the audience. And then, there was Kameron Marlowe. The US-American artist and his band boosted the day and did the foundation on which Zach Top finally did a great final performance of the weekend. I really loved his time on stage!

 

 

C2C Berlin 2026 – My View

Having an event like the Country To Country in Germany is a gift to the German country music community. The music industry likely declines quite some profit to make it happen. And this turns Berlin to a unique event. The location with the major Uber Eats Music Hall and the minor daytime stages feels ideal. But finally, it is the close and familiar spirit, the close contact between fans and artists. Of course, there are things you could improve. But if you turn the wheel too far, you can also destroy a lot of this outstanding event. To me, the daytime stages and the aftershow party, which I attended the first time, impressed me (again). It is a great opportunity to dip into the genre and to meet a lot of people, who love listening to the same kind of music.

 

C2C Berlin 2027 – My Wishlist

I felt going for three wishes for 2027, any of them addressed to another group of people:

  • To the organizers: Don’t push too hard to make it bigger. Big names might sell more tickets. But sometimes, a big heart on stage will boost the spirit of the event even more. It will make the people happy and they will come back. I feel, if you look at the Berlin ticket prices and compare them to London, Germany got the better package (and quite some British people agree already…)
  • To the artists / the industry: first of all, thanks for the effort coming over to Germany. Spread the word that this one is a gem in country music. Dare to come to Berlin, even if the income is lower than in other places. But also, dare to promote and share your music. Even though it is a lot of effort sometimes.
  • To the Community: Stay positive. Sometimes, we have to wait outside the venue. Sometimes, we wish for Luke Bryan (I saw him recently, some acts in Berlin were definitely better…). As much as I ask Semmel Concerts to value the asset they grew over the last years, the much we should do it, too. I look forward to meet friends again in March 2027. I look forward to meet new people and long-time friends. And I look forward to meet artists during breakfast. Anybody of us invests quite a bunch of money having that weekend in Berlin. But let’s work on keeping this spirit of respect for each other, community and artists, alive.

 

C2C Berlin 2026 – My Posts

Here is the list of posts I did about the C2C 2026. The three daily reports together have a total of 3,685 pictures in a dedicated C2C 2026 Berlin section in the concert galleries:

 

 

Flyctory.com about Country To Country

Here are more postings related to the Country To Country festivals in the UK, Netherlands, Ireland and Germany:

 

All “classic” blog posts

No reviews – just debating and certain topics. These are my “traditional” blog posts in the categories Just blogging, Just blogging on music and Sports Blogging:

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