Culture · Art · Events · Entertainment
Somewhere tonight
the lights go down.
Museums, opera houses, galleries, clubs, arenas and festivals in sixteen cities from Berlin to Seoul. With ticket prices, opening hours, dress codes and the booking tricks that actually work.
The Culture Finder
Tell us the evening. We name the room.
Choose a city, the mood and your budget: three venues from the guide, with the reason each one fits.
Sixteen culture capitals
Sixteen cities, sixteen ways to spend an evening.
Every city keeps its own hours. Vienna starts at seven in a coat and tie, Berlin at midnight in whatever you slept in, Tokyo sells out in ninety seconds. Sixteen portraits with the houses that matter.
86Germany
Berlin
Three opera houses, five museums on one island and a club that never asks the time
85United Kingdom
London
The greatest free collections on earth and the most expensive tickets in Europe
82France
Paris
The museum as a state religion, and an opera house built to be looked at
85United States
New York
Broadway, the Met and a downtown that reinvents the rules every decade
84Austria
Vienna
Standing room at the State Opera for the price of a coffee
81Netherlands
Amsterdam
Rembrandt and Van Gogh in one square, and a club culture with its own night mayor
83Spain
Barcelona
Modernisme as a city plan, Miró on a hill and electronic music as an export
78Italy
Venice
A biennale city where the exhibition is the street plan
The map
Sixteen cities, one programme.
Tap a pin for the culture index, the number of venues and the way in.
All venues, sorted by kind
What kind of room?
Museums
Collections and permanent exhibitions
41 venuesGalleries
Contemporary art, kunsthalles and project spaces
10 venuesOpera and Ballet
Opera houses and ballet stages
11 venuesConcert Halls
Classical, philharmonic and recital rooms
12 venuesTheatres
Drama, musicals and the fringe
9 venuesLive Rooms and Clubs
Jazz cellars, live houses and dance floors
15 venuesArenas and Big Shows
Stadiums, arenas and amphitheatres
2 venuesCulture Landmarks
Buildings, campuses and sites that are the exhibition
13 venuesRooms of the season
Six bookings worth a flight.
Live roomLateBerlin · Friedrichshain
Berghain
A power station turned into the most serious dance floor in the world, and the hardest door
Opera houseIconParis · 9th arrondissement
Palais Garnier
The most theatrical opera house ever built, where the staircase is the performance
LandmarkNew York · Hudson Yards
The Shed
A building with a telescopic shell that rolls out on rails to double its own size
Opera houseBook aheadMilan · Centro
Teatro alla Scala
The most demanding audience in opera sits in the cheapest seats, right at the top
MuseumVenice · Dorsoduro
Punta della Dogana
The old customs house at the tip of the island, stripped back by Tadao Ando
Live roomTokyo · Aoyama
Blue Note Tokyo
Two sets a night in a basement in Aoyama, with the best sightlines of any jazz club in this guide
Thirty-two festivals, twelve months
The year ahead.
A festival is a city with a different nervous system for two weeks. Here is the year, month by month, with what each one actually costs and when to book.
Jan / FebRotterdam · Film
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The counterweight to the glamour festivals: first and second features, no red carpet
FebBerlin · Film
Berlinale
The only major film festival that sells most of its seats to the public
FebMexico City · Art
Zona Maco
Latin America's largest art fair, and a week in which the whole city programmes against it
FebFreeVenice · Street
Carnevale di Venezia
Masks, a city that empties of cars because it never had any, and a flight down a rope into the piazza
Interactive
Find, count, plan, share.
Find the room, count the cost, plan the weekend, book at the right hour. Everything runs in your browser, and every result can be shared as a link or an image.
Three rooms for tonight
Culture Finder
Tell us the city, the mood and the budget.
OpenThe year in thirty-two festivals
Festival Planner
Choose the months you can travel and the kind of thing you like.
OpenA weekend, hour by hour
48 Hours
Pick a city and a pace.
OpenLet chance decide
Night Roulette
Spin it and take what comes.
OpenTwo cities, eight measures
City Duel
Put two culture capitals against each other across museums, stage, music, contemporary, festivals, nightlife, value and access..
OpenWhat an evening really costs
Culture Budget
Build an evening or a weekend from museums, tickets, drinks, dinner and transport, in any of the sixteen cities, and see the total..
OpenHow long do you actually need?
Museum Time
Tell us how you look at art and which museums you want.
OpenWhich century is yours?
Era Matcher
Six questions about what you want a picture to do.
OpenForty things worth crossing a continent for
The Bucket List
Forty cultural experiences from this guide.
OpenReader poll
Which city is the culture capital of the world?
From the magazine
