Berlin has always been Europe’s most permissive city. Now, for the first time, it’s getting an expo to match.
There’s a version of Berlin that the world already knows. The clubs that don’t close. The streets that feel like they were designed for people who’ve opted out of normal. The kind of city where a where you never know what can happen when you head out the door. Berlin has always had a particular relationship with altered states. It takes its hedonism seriously, and it takes its consciousness seriously too.
Which is why it’s taken this long to get a proper expo about it. And why, when it finally arrives, it’s worth paying attention.
TRYP Expo is Berlin’s first dedicated expo and festival around psychedelic science, mental health, wellness, and human flourishing – landing at Funkhaus on May 15–17, 2026. Three days. 150+ exhibitors. 80+ speakers. And a city that, frankly, has been perfect for exactly this kind of event.
Why Berlin? Why Now?
Let’s talk about the elephant in the Biergarten. In April 2024, Germany became the first major EU nation to legalise recreational cannabis, making it legal for adults to possess up to 25g in public, grow up to three plants at home, and join non-profit cannabis social clubs. Crowds gathered at the Brandenburg Gate at midnight to celebrate. The director of Berlin’s own Hemp Museum called it “the first step on the road to a rational and science-based drugs policy.”
This is a big step. Not just legally, but culturally. It signalled that Germany (and Berlin especially) is willing to take a grown-up position on substances. Not the old binary of “dangerous drug” vs. “medical exception,” but something more nuanced: that how we interact with our own consciousness is a matter of public health, personal autonomy, and cultural identity.
Cannabis was just the beginning of that conversation. Psychedelic-assisted therapy is the next chapter, and Berlin is already writing it. The MIND Foundation – one of Europe’s leading psychedelic research organisations – is headquartered here. The city has an active psychedelic society running monthly integration circles, scientific talks, and community events. There are breathwork studios, sound healing spaces, and retreat facilitators operating across Neukölln, Prenzlauer Berg, and Mitte. The scene exists. Now it has a proper stage.
TRYP Expo is the city’s first attempt to bring all of it into one room. The researchers and the ravers, the clinicians and the curious, the brands building businesses in this space and the individuals just trying to figure out what a better relationship with their own mind looks like.
The Science Behind the Moment
Here’s the thing about psychedelics that the mainstream conversation usually gets wrong: it treats them as either a vice or a miracle cure. Neither is accurate, and both are lazy.
The last decade of research coming out of institutions like Johns Hopkins, Imperial College London, and NYU has been nothing short of remarkable. Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. Ketamine for suicidal ideation. These aren’t fringe claims — they’re peer-reviewed, replicated findings that are actively reshaping psychiatry.
Europe is catching up fast. And TRYP Expo is essentially the first major public-facing event to acknowledge that this cultural and scientific moment deserves a proper stage and a place to gather.
“The most important conversations of the next decade aren’t happening on your phone. They’re happening in rooms like this.“
What You’ll Actually Find There
The event runs across four pillars, and the clever part is how they complement each other. You won’t just be sitting in lecture halls.
The Exhibition floor is where the commercial and scientific worlds collide — 150+ brands and organizations spanning everything from psychedelic-assisted therapy startups to wellness tech, sound healing instruments, and harm reduction nonprofits. Think of it less like a trade show and more like a map of where this whole space is heading.
The Dialogue stage is where it gets intellectually dense in the best way. The speaker lineup includes Dr. Henrik Jungaberle of the MIND Foundation, Max Planck neuroscientist Dr. Martha Havenith, NYT-bestselling author Norman Ohler (whose book Blitzed is essential reading), philosophers, clinicians, journalists, and practitioners. These are the people doing the actual work in the field.
Worth noting: The event has a formal scientific integrity policy. In a space that attracts its fair share of snake oil, this matters more than people realize. They’re explicitly trying to hold the line between evidence-based dialogue and woo.
The Wellness spaces are where things get genuinely experiential. We’re talking breathwork, cacao ceremonies, sound baths, Kundalini activation, somatic practices, ecstatic hypnosis. You don’t have to do any of it. But if you’re curious what it feels like to actually work with your nervous system instead of just reading about it, here’s your entry point.
The Festival is what happens when the sun goes down and the energy needs somewhere to go. Saturday night runs until 8am with open air music and the xXETEXx & MO:DEM party. Sunday closes out with Omana Festival. Berlin nightlife meets psychedelic culture – which, if you’ve spent any time in this city, you’ll know is not exactly a forced pairing.
The Venue Is Half the Experience
They’re holding this at Funkhaus Berlin – and if you know, you know. The former East German broadcast complex sits on the Spree, all monumental concrete and legendary acoustics. It’s the kind of building that doesn’t need decoration. The architecture itself does something to the way you feel inside it. There’s a reason the world’s best DJs play there. Putting an event about consciousness and expanded awareness in that space is a genius move.
TRYP Expo Berlin 2026
Global Psychedelic Science & Culture Fair
Exhibition, talks, workshops, wellness — 11:00–19:00
🌙 Music Concert — 19:00–23:30
Exhibition, talks, workshops, wellness — 11:00–19:00
🌙 Open Air + xXETEXx & MO:DEM Party — 16:00–08:00
Final talks, closing ceremony, wellness — 11:00–18:00
🌙 Closing Party × Omana Festival — 18:00–08:00
Who This Is Actually For
Not just for people who take psychedelics. The event is designed to be inclusive for all. They’ve stated LGBTQ+ inclusion explicitly in their values, alongside a zero-tolerance policy for intolerance, which in the psychedelics space is still more necessary to say out loud than it should be.
If you’re a therapist curious about what’s coming in the next wave of treatment protocols, you’ll find your people here. If you’re just someone who’s read How to Change Your Mind and wants to go deeper, there’s space for that too. The programming is designed to meet people where they are. You just need to be intellectually curious. There’s no need to be committed to any particular worldview.
And that is exactly what good intellectual events should do. Not convert you. Not sell you something. Just put you in rooms with interesting ideas and people and get out of the way.
The Bottom Line
We’re in a weird cultural moment with psychedelics. The stigma is cracking but hasn’t fully broken. The science is compelling but hasn’t fully landed in the public consciousness. The wellness industry is circling the space, trying to monetize it before it even knows exactly what it is.
Events like TRYP Expo are needed because they create a shared space where the serious and the celebratory can coexist. Where a Max Planck neuroscientist and a Berlin techno DJ can occupy the same building and share their respective crafts.
You could spend May 15–17 doing what you usually do. Or you could spend it in Funkhaus Berlin, exploring revolutionary ideas, connecting with like-minded folk, and learning about cutting edge health and wellness science.
The choice, as always, is yours. Just make it consciously.
SECURE YOUR TICKET AT TRYP EXPO →
Use code MUSHIES at checkout via the link above.
