Festival

Under the motto “Mediterranean Crossing”, the 2024 World Music Festival will focus on the diverse musical and cultural developments in the Mediterranean region, this special cultural area that connects Europe, Asia and Africa. On the stages in Nuremberg's Old Town, it will then become clear how the most diverse cultures around the Mediterranean are still characterised by mutual exchange today. Where does flamenco come from and what influences did the Arabic and Jewish musical traditions have on the Iberian Peninsula? What parallels can be found in North African gnawa and southern Italian tarantella music? What are the current trends in Greek rembetiko and what impact does all this have on contemporary pop music? Invited guests include the star singer Marina Satti, who grew up on Crete, the music collective Baiuca, which mixes traditional Spanish music with danceable electronic music, the Syrian-Palestinian pianist, singer and “Creole”-World-Music-Prize-winner Aeham Ahmad, the Algerian music collective Labess, the group Light in Babylon around the Israeli singer with Iranian roots Michal Elia Kamal, Gaye Su Akyol from Turkey, flamenco cantador Sebastián Cruz or the Crucchi Gang around frontman Francesco Wilking with Italo pop inspired by German songs.

Whenever the summer sun shines at its warmest and the holidays are just around the corner, the people of Nuremberg prepare the stages for an almost 50-year-old tradition in the most picturesque places in their city: the Bardentreffen invites you to a superlative music festival in the heart of the historic old town over three days at the end of July. However, contrary to what the title might suggest, this is not about the music of the Middle Ages - far from it! The music programme focuses on the current trends and currents of the international world music scene, global pop and singer-songwriting. With over 200,000 guests and around 400 artists on 8 stages, it is considered the “largest free and open-air music festival in Germany” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and one of the most important of its kind in Europe. Like good wine, a hand-picked programme matures over several months, appealing to experienced music lovers as well as spontaneous strollers from young to old. The many hundreds of street musicians at every corner of the festival also contribute to the relaxed atmosphere during the festival days. They have chosen the Bardentreffen as their Mecca.

With Thomas Gottschalk as presenter and singers such as Heinz Rudolf Kunze, Klaus Lage and Thommie Bayer as debutants, the Bardentreffen was founded in 1976 as a singer-songwriter competition to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of the Nuremberg cobbler and poet Hans Sachs, who lives on to this day as a stage character in Richard Wagner's “Meistersinger” opera. Over the years, the festival has grown, the stages have become bigger, the sound has changed and the Bardentreffen has opened up to the current international world music scene. And remains true to its beginnings almost five decades ago with carefully selected invitations to singer-songwriter legends and insider tips.  

Bards from then and now: Faber, Kimmo Pohjonen, Ebo Talor, Maro, Fiva, Moop Mama, Bukahara, Vieux Farka Toure, Joris, Käpt'n Peng, Shantel, Django 3000, Gankino Circus, Rainald Grebe, Katzenjammer, Sophie Hunger, LaBrassBanda, Calexico, Meute, Anna Depenbusch, Dota, Leningrad Cowboys, Jarabe de Palo, Biermösl Blosn, Konstantin Wecker, Hannes Wader and many more.