From handmade folk music to digital media art - Osnabrück has many fundamentally different festivals that take place over several days every year. The current dates for the next 4 weeks can be found in the events - tips and an overview from A - Z can be found here. Please excuse the inconvenience that many organisers do not yet have a translation behind the links.
The Morgenland Festival brings together on stage for ten days exceptional musicians who have their roots in the culture of the Eastern Mediterranean. The 19th edition of the festival features classical and jazz, the oldest stringed instrument, several premieres and takes place open air and in various locations. More about the program of the festival and all events can be found on the homepage of the Morgenland Festival.
The Akyürek Festival is organized by the Office for Peace Culture, cultural associations, schools and initiatives of the district. They show interesting and worth knowing with many participatory activities (not only) for children. Music, dance, song and poetry whet the appetite for the many speciality stands on offer. The festival takes place in May.
Altstadt Live is the biggest pub music festival in the region. Once a year the Altstadtwirte invite to the autumn edition on the evening before the "Day of German Unity". So get out of your living room and into the good parlor of Osnabrück. The music is on the house: Admission is still free!
To the old town live (German)
Every two years on the first Sunday in September, the culture and family festival attracts up to 15,000 visitors - with theater, music, art, tours, hands-on activities and the light railroad. Shuttle trips with historic trains between the main station and the colliery station are offered by the Dampflokfreunde Osnabrück. At more than 10 locations on and around the mountain, 100 actors show pure culture.
To the mountain festival
The Osnabrück Blueslawine at the Haus der Jugend offers a top-class program every year. Every spring, the organizers succeed in attracting renowned artists for this popular festival in Osnabrück.
To the blues avalanche
Classical music in brilliant interpretation is the motto of the annual festival. The Classic con Brio Festival focuses on musical quality and artistic seriousness, with the spontaneity of the moment on stage providing the spark to the audience.
To the Classic con Brio
The annual Euregio Music Festival sets fresh accents with young top musicians, atmospheric venues in and around Osnabrück, carefully selected programs and its own competition: the Euregio Violin Challenge.
To the Euregio Festival
Every year in April, the EMAF offers experimental films, installations, performances and new digital formats. The spectrum ranges from personal and political topics, creative experiments to provocative statements from the field of tension "media art - society". The festival sees itself as a place of experimentation and as a laboratory in which the unusual is created and shown.
To the EMAF
The festival for urban art is new in Osnabrück. Since 2021, the festival takes place in different spaces and on ever new facades. The goal is a constantly growing route of urban art through the city, the murals let a freely accessible museum for facade art emerge. By the way: The initiators are constantly looking for new spaces!
To the Famos Festival
The traditional Festival of Cultures in Osnabrück takes place on the third Sunday in September on the market at the town hall. It offers an intercultural program, specialties, and all kinds of information from different countries and regions of the world. For more information, contact the city's Office for Peace Culture, phone: 0541 323-3210 or e-mail.
Email to the Festival of Cultures
One evening in August, the Heger Tor neighborhood with its special atmosphere becomes a stage for international folk: sometimes traditional, sometimes modern, sometimes danceable. It's music from past centuries, sounds from distant lands or never-before-heard mixes of styles.
To the folk in the quarter
The folk bands on stage play mainly lively Irish, Scottish, English and American folk. In addition to a band from the Osnabrück region, two nationally known formations will shape the evening. It will take place in the Haus der Jugend.
To the Folk meets OS
The association Gay in May e.V. organizes the oldest active festival in Germany. It wants to make sexual and gender diversity visible. In this context, the Rosa Courage Prize is awarded annually to people who have stood up for LGBTIQ people.
To GayinMay Festival
Longboard contests in empty halls, elephant sculptures in the middle of a construction site - since 2008, the Youth Culture Days have been a platform for youth culture. The JKT provide a stage and opportunities for young people to shape their own art and culture with creativity, commitment and equal opportunities.
To the JKT
Numerous small courtyards and squares are hidden in the alleys and behind the picturesque facades of the old town district. On one evening in June, they will be transformed several times into a stage for music, improv theater and cabaret.
To the Little Feast
... and over far too quickly: At the end of August/beginning of September, culture is presented in the old town from 6 p.m. onwards, organized by the city of Osnabrück with the cultural institutions in the city center. Admission is free during the Culture Night. Information about the Culture Night is available by e-mail or by phone 0541 323-3092.
Email to the Culture Night
Folk and peace songs in front of the town hall - the choirs encourage people to sing along. The day is organized in the spring by the Osnabrück-Stadt Sängerkreisgruppe.
Osnabrück City Singing Group, FOKUS e. V.
Phone: 0541 28956 (FOKUS)
It is the new international cultural festival in Osnabrück, which takes place every two years - next time in June 2023. Here literature and music, exhibition and productions meet - united by a common theme, which for example in 2021 was the Portuguese language area.
To the MeWe
The Morgenland Festival brings musicians from the Middle East to the city and makes the return visit with the members of the orchestra. Everything from traditional music to rock and avant-garde is played. Since 2005, the Morgenland Festival has been a fixture in Osnabrück and for musicians from the Mediterranean to northwestern China.
To the Morgenland Festival
Osnabrück Peace Day includes a concert from the "Musica pro Pace" series, organized by the Osnabrück Peace Talks, the churches and the city's cultural office. "Musica pro Pace" performs compositions that express the horrors of war and the longing for peace.
To Musica pro Pace
The festival was founded in 1989 by its artistic director Herbert Vieth at the same time as the establishment of the North German Study Center Forum Artium - today an international music festival in the district of Osnabrück. An important part are interpretation and master classes on performance practice of early music.
About Musica Viva
The Osnabrück Organ Summer in July/August is a highly appreciated tradition since 1991, every vacation Tuesday at 8:15 pm in one of the five inner city churches. The church musicians of the main churches and guests play in cool churches on valuable organs. Admission is free! Further information from the Ecumenical Cantors' Convention
Calling the Organ Summer
The largest cabaret festival in northwest Germany takes place in Osnabrück in November/December. From classic political cabaret to sophisticated comedy and wacky chanson, all genres are represented.
To the Cabaret Festival
Young bands on two stages - at Ledenhof and Katharinenkirche - play Lindy Hop and Latin, Swing, Neo Soul and Electro-Jazz. Jazz student Luka Kleine and the Musikbüro Osnabrück e.V. organize the POLYCHROMl. The sponsor of the POLYCHROM is the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation.
To the Polychrome Festival
The Popsalon is alive and kicking. It usually takes place in April on three days in different locations in Osnabrück and provides an incomparable, wonderful, shrill, quiet and loud weekend full of music.
To the pop salon
Outstanding live music from the Osnabrück region - organized by the Osnabrück Music Office, the House of Youth and the Streetwork/Mobile Youth Work of the City of Osnabrück. The small festival in the castle garden gives Osnabrück musicians a stage and the audience a relaxed open air.
To the Schloga
After the successful start with the Schlossgarten Open Air 2015, the open air in the middle of Osnabrück's city center will continue in front of a dreamlike backdrop. The Fantastischen Vier, Revolverheld, Rea Garvey, Cro, Silbermond, Andreas Bourani and the Beginner have already been on stage in the Schlossgarten.
To the Castle Garden Open Air
"Summer in the City" is the title of the program that presents more than 100 summer cultural events in Osnabrück from June to September: Open-air cabaret, rock open air or cinema under the stars. And all of this directly in Osnabrück at various locations.
To the summer in the city
In the "Meeting Place for Art and Culture" and in the Gertrudenkirche on the grounds of the AMEOS Klinikum Osnabrück, the Sunday concerts developed into one of the best-known concert series in the Osnabrück area - mostly classical chamber music concerts, but also Klezmer music, jazz, singing, readings with music or drama are part of it.
To the Sunday concert
Theater Osnabrück will be out and about in the city in late summer: visitors can take various routes on foot or by bus to unusual places where different aspects of the theater program will be shown, from drama, dance and music to literature. One festival route begins and ends in front of the theater.
To the game drives
Northern Germany's largest student festival offers a three-day festival every spring on the university campus on the Westerberg with various workshops and activities as well as music acts in the evening. It is a highlight for all Osnabrück students and is known far beyond the city limits.
To the terrace party
Five days in October belong to independently produced, socially engaged, contemporary film. German and international productions compete for various awards - for short films or documentaries. There is a student award for young filmmakers and, of course, the Peace Film Award Osnabrück.
To the FimFest
The Young Urban Performances Festival has become a permanent fixture in the young performance scene. Every year, the YUP Festival invites numerous artists to present their performative works at the Kunsthalle, the Haus der Jugend and the Museumsquartier Osnabrück.
To the YUP FestivalPlease inquire on the homepages or directly in the respective houses about the current opening and event times, prices, cancellations, etc.. This information can change at short notice!
