While many travellers have probably heard of Oktoberfest, Germany’s most well-known festival, you can find a range of different German festivals held throughout the year. With Volksfeste (beer and wine festivals), German music festivals, film festivals and much more, you can easily find German celebrations to add to your festival bucket list.
In addition, many of the festivals in Germany showcase amazing traditional German food, at some of the best places to visit in Germany. If you plan on going to different festivals around the country, check out our guide to Germany by train for everything you need to know about the country’s railway system.
Festivals in Germany: Oktoberfest
Date: 17th of September to 3rd of October
Oktoberfest is the largest and most well-known Volksfest in the world, held in Munich, usually from mid-September to the first Sunday in October. It draws nearly 7 million people each year, who get dressed up in lederhosen and come together to drink millions of litres of beer. Apart from the festival’s famous beer, you’ll also find carnival rides, German wines and a few tents serving delicious meals to go with your beer. This festival in Munich is by far one of the largest and most popular, but you’ll find Oktoberfest celebrations held throughout Germany and even around the world.
Carnival, Cologne
Date: 24th of February to 2nd of March
Cologne’s Carnival originated in the Middle Ages as a festival to celebrate the end of winter and begin fasting for Easter, which is why the name stems from the Latin expression meaning ‘meat farewell’. In 1823, the Cologne Carnival Committee brought more structure to the celebration. Today, the festival sees millions of visitors enjoying the food, beer and live performances during the week-long celebration at the end of February.
You’ll see floats, trucks and tractors parade 6 kilometres through central Cologne, with performers and spectators alike getting dressed up in costumes. Carnival celebrations occur throughout winter, but the most exciting time is the six days before Lent, known as the ‘Crazy Days’. During this celebration, you can put together your wildest costume and get ready to party all night long, with pubs staying open for the entire festival.
Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg
Date: 21st of September to 24th of September
Reeperbahn is the largest club festival in Europe, with events and performances spread out across the city in a variety of venues, which helps it host hundreds of concerts over just four days. Held in Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s entertainment district, you’ll find indie, hip-hop, heavy metal, soul and jazz, so every visitor can find something they’ll love or try something new.
You can often find promising young stars making their debuts, some backed by major labels and others striking it out on their own. Reeperbahn isn’t just a festival for music fans. It’s also one of the most important events of the year for music industry professionals, with a conference programme to help people network, keep up with the latest trends and spot the next big thing.
Hafengeburtstag, Hamburg
Date: 16th of September to 18th of September
Hafengeburtstag (also known as the Hamburg Port Anniversary) is a celebration of the city of Hamburg, usually on the first weekend in May every year, with more than one million people spending the weekend at the festival that spreads out across the city. Hamburg was a hugely important trade hub historically, and one of the festival’s highlights is the boat shows with old-fashioned boats racing across the water and bringing visitors on board for tours.
Away from the docks, you’ll find fantastic food at street-food stands and packed beer halls, so you can easily spend the night exploring the festival. With live music performances, parties on board boats and beautiful fireworks, Hafengeburtstag is an unforgettable experience.
Walpurgisnacht, Heidelberg
Date: 30th of April to 1st of May
Walpurgisnacht or Walpurgis Night is held in honour of an 8th-century abbess (the head of an abbey), Saint Walpurga. She supposedly cured serious illnesses like rabies and whooping cough and fought against witchcraft. However, the tradition is also thought to originate from old Pagan festivals that celebrated spring.
Find Walpurgis Night celebrations held throughout Europe, particularly in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, with some celebrations combining it with May Day. In Heidelberg, you can head up woodland paths to the base of Heidelberg’s Holy Mountain, where they light a bonfire, and locals, students and tourists drink and dance the night away.
Cannstatter Volksfest, Stuttgart
Date: 23rd of September to 9th of October
The Cannstatter Volkfest, sometimes known as the Stuttgart Beer Festival, has something for everyone, from visitors looking for delicious German beer to families looking for a fun outing with kids. The festival hosts a range of amusement rides, often including Ferris wheels up to 60 metres high, roller coasters, carousels and free-fall towers.
Kids and adults alike will have a blast trying all the rides on offer. With around seven large beer tents operated by different breweries, you can hop between them and taste the different offerings (one tent is selected each year to host the opening ceremony). Unity Day falls during the festival, so on that night, you’ll get to witness a fantastic firework display.
Wurstmarkt, Bad Durkheim
Date: 9th of September to 19th of September
Germany is probably best known for its beer festivals, but Wurstmarkt is one of its best wine festivals, bringing in over 600,000 people each year. First held in 1417, today it’s one of the largest wine festivals in the world, and if you already know that ‘wurst’ means ‘sausage’, you’ll have guessed that there’s plenty of delicious food to be eaten here too.
You’ll mostly find Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot at the festival, as these are the region’s specialities, and you’ll find plenty of each to try and compare. It’s generally scheduled for the second and third weekend in September in the spa town of Bad Durkheim, with live music and entertainment to accompany the delicious wine and local culinary specialities.
Rhein in Flammen, Koblenz
Date: Second Saturday in August
Rhein in Flammen, meaning the Rhine in Flames, is usually five firework displays along the Rhine River on five different dates each year. Accompanying the fireworks are brightly lit ships that sail along the river, giving their passengers an excellent look at the display.
The display in Koblenz is generally the largest and most spectacular of the five events and occurs every year on the second Saturday in August, so you can witness the incredible display on a warm summer evening. The other events are held on the first Saturday in May (Bonn), in July (Rudesheim-Bingen), in early September (Oberswel) and in mid-September (between Sankt Goar and Sankt Goarshausen).
Festivals in Berlin
Berlin is one of Germany’s most popular tourist destinations, with fantastic museums, restaurants and historic buildings. Berlin is also home to some fantastic festivals throughout the year. From festivals celebrating important historical events to entertainment, sports and film festivals, the German capital has something for everyone. With festivals in summer, autumn and winter, it’s easy to plan your next trip to Berlin around one of their festivals.
DFB-Pokal, Berlin
Date: 3rd of June
An annual football tournament, DFB-Pokal hosts the 64 best football teams in Germany, pitting them against each other in a knockout-style tournament that’s beloved by football fans across Germany. The competition takes place throughout Germany between August and May, with the final held in Berlin at the Olympic Stadium, where you’ll find an atmosphere rivalling the biggest sporting events around the world. Football fans will have an incredible time amidst the passionate cheers, team songs and emotional ups and downs of one of Germany’s most important football events.
Unity Day, Berlin
Date: 3rd of October
Unity Day is a public holiday in Germany, held every year on the 3rd of October, commemorating the reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic in 1990. Though celebrations happen all throughout Germany, the day has a particular significance in Berlin, as the city that was once divided in two.
Here you’ll find live concerts and fairgrounds at the Brandenburg Gate, art installations and history exhibitions along the Berlin Wall and parades through the city. Outside of Berlin, each year one city is nominated as the host city for Unity Day Celebrations, with Kiel, Dresden and Frankfurt all hosting the celebrations in previous years.
Berlinale, Berlin
Date: 10th of February to 20th of February
First held in 1978, Berlinale is the world’s largest international film festival, screening hundreds of films each year across a wide variety of genres. It’s one of the ‘big three’ film festivals (along with Cannes and Venice), and it’s one of the most accessible major international film festivals, with tickets for single screenings sold to the public for about €12 (about £10 each).
From the hundreds of films screened yearly, roughly 20 compete for the top prizes, known as the Golden and Silver Bears. Since 2003, the festival has partnered with Berlinale Talents to host a workshop for emerging filmmakers at the same time as the festival, with young filmmakers from all around the world attending lectures, panels and workshops held by industry professionals.
Beer Week, Berlin
Date: 2nd of September to 11th of September
Berlin’s Beer Week festival is a city-wide celebration of craft beer, hosting breweries from around the world. You’ll find venues throughout the city, but the biggest is the Berlin Kulturbrauerei. This large historic building initially operated as a brewery and is now one of Berlin’s best cultural centres. Alongside delicious beer tasting opportunities, you’ll find live music, amazing food and ‘Brews Cruise’, which takes you down the Spree River with over 30 beers on tap.
