Festival

In the summer of 2026, Nuremberg will celebrate a double anniversary: 50 years of Bardentreffen and the 450th anniversary of the death of Nuremberg’s Meistersinger Hans Sachs, in whose honor the Bardentreffen festival was founded in 1976. Two jubilees that uniquely connect the past and present of the art of songwriting.

From Thursday, July 30, to Sunday, August 2, 2026 – starting one day earlier than usual – the focus will be on international contemporary song poets and lyric artists. The program spans a wide arc from global pop and folk to musical cabaret. Across the eight stages of the official program, audiences can experience, among others: Amadeus Award–winning Austrian rapper Nenda; singer-songwriter and blues virtuoso Norbert Schneider; Portuguese singer Joana Amendoeira with Brazilian guitarist Fred Martins; folk music innovator and Scharfrichterbeil Prize winner Maxi Pongratz; Italian vocal acrobat Lavinia Mancusi; Catalan singer Magalí Sare with her stage partner Manel Fortià on double bass; Icelandic singer-songwriter Svavar Knútur; Australian folk duo Charm of Finches and singer-songwriter Luca Vasta.

The anniversary opening on the festival Thursday places participatory singing at the heart of the City of the Meistersingers: Kathrin Schmerer, an expert in spontaneous choral singing, invites the public to a collective sing-along flash mob at the Hauptmarkt. One of Nuremberg’s most traditional choirs, the Hans Sachs Choir, builds a bridge between the Renaissance and the modern era in a special concert under the direction of Guido Johannes Rumstadt. The evening concludes with the live crowd-singing format by the group Sing Dela Sing, which invites the city’s community and Bardentreffen fans to join in collective singing with well-known pop songs from five decades of music history.

The complete program, featuring around 100 official events, will be published here at the end of June. Also at the end of June, a comprehensive special edition of the program booklet will be released, featuring articles and impressions from 50 years of Bardentreffen, and will be available in bookstores. Bayerischer Rundfunk, Studio Franken, has accompanied the Bardentreffen as a media partner from the very beginning, broadcasting live from the festival on Bayern 2 and once again presenting selected concert recordings in 2026 on radio as well as via video livestreams.

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: Marina Satti, Faber, Kimmo Pohjonen, Ebo Talor, Maro, Julieta Venegas, La Delio Valdez, Moop Mama, Bukahara, Vieux Farka Toure, Shantel, Katzenjammer, Sophie Hunger, LaBrassBanda, Calexico, Meute, Leningrad Cowboys, Jarabe de Palo, Taj Mahal, Konstantin Wecker, Hannes Wader and many more.