From handmade folk music to digital media art - in Osnabrück there are many fundamentally different festivals that take place over several days every year. The current dates for the next four weeks can be found in the events - tips and an overview from A to Z can be found here.
The Akyürek Festival is organised by the Office for Peace Culture, cultural associations, schools and initiatives in the district. They present interesting and interesting facts with many hands-on activities (not only) for children. Music, dance, singing and poetry whet the appetite for the many speciality stands on offer. The festival takes place in May.
Altstadt Live is the largest pub music festival in the region. Once a year, the Altstadtwirte hosts the autumn edition on the evening before the "Day of German Unity". So get out of your living room and into the parlour of Osnabrück. The music is on the house: admission is still free!
To the old town liveEvery two years on the first Sunday in September, the culture and family festival attracts up to 15,000 visitors - with theatre, music, art, tours, hands-on activities and the light railway. Osnabrück steam locomotive enthusiasts offer shuttle rides on historic trains between the main railway station and the colliery station. At over 10 locations on and around the mountain, 100 performers present pure culture.
To the mountain festivalEvery year, the Osnabrück Blueslawine in the Haus der Jugend presents a top-class programme. Every spring, the organisers succeed in attracting renowned artists to this popular festival in Osnabrück.
To the blues avalancheBrilliant interpretations of classical music is the motto of the annual festival. At the Classic con Brio Festival, musical quality and artistic seriousness take centre stage, with the spontaneity of the moment on stage sparking the audience.
To the Classic con BrioThe annual Euregio Music Festival sets fresh accents with top young musicians, atmospheric venues in and around Osnabrück, carefully selected programmes and its own competition: the Euregio Violin Challenge.
To the Euregio FestivalEvery year in April, the EMAF presents experimental films, installations, performances and new digital formats. The spectrum ranges from personal and political themes, creative experiments to provocative statements from the field of tension between "media art and society". The festival sees itself as a place of experimentation and as a laboratory in which the unusual is created and shown.
To the EMAFThe festival for urban art is new in Osnabrück. Since 2021, the festival has been taking place in different spaces and on new facades. The aim is to create a constantly growing route of urban art through the city, with the murals creating a freely accessible museum of façade art. By the way: the initiators are always on the lookout for new spaces!
To the Famos FestivalThe traditional Festival of Cultures in Osnabrück takes place on the third Sunday in September on the market square by the town hall. It offers an intercultural programme, specialities and all kinds of information from different countries and regions of the world. Further information is available from the city's Office for Peace Culture.
To the festival of culturesOne evening in August, the Heger Tor neighbourhood with its special atmosphere becomes a stage for international folk: sometimes traditional, sometimes modern, sometimes danceable. It is music from past centuries, sounds from distant lands or never-before-heard mixes of styles.
Folk in the neighbourhoodThe folk bands on stage mainly play lively Irish, Scottish, English and American folk music. In addition to a band from the Osnabrück region, the evening will also feature two nationally recognised bands. It takes place in the Haus der Jugend.
To Folk meets OSThe Gay in May e.V. association organises the oldest active festival in Germany. It aims to make sexual and gender diversity visible. In this context, the Rosa Courage Prize is awarded every year to people who have stood up for LGBTIQ people.
To the GayinMay FestivalLongboard contests in empty halls, elephant sculptures in the middle of a building site - the Youth Culture Days have been a platform for youth culture since 2008. 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 JKTNumerous small courtyards and squares are hidden in the alleyways and behind the picturesque facades of the old town district. On one evening in June, they become a stage for music, improv theatre and cabaret.
To the small festival... and over far too quickly: at the end of August/beginning of September, culture is presented in the old town from 6 pm, organised by the city of Osnabrück together with the cultural institutions in the city centre. Admission to the Culture Night is free. Information on the Culture Night is available by e-mail or by telephone on 0541 323-3092.
E-mail to the KulturnachtFolk and peace songs in front of the town hall - the choirs encourage people to sing along. The day is organised in spring by the Osnabrück City Singing Circle.
Sängerkreisgruppe Osnabrück-Stadt, FOKUS e. V.
Telephone: 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, exhibitions and productions come together - united by a common theme, which in 2021, for example, was the Portuguese-speaking world.
To the MeWeThe Morgenland Festival brings musicians from the Middle East to the city and makes a 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 permanent fixture in Osnabrück and a source of inspiration for musicians from the Mediterranean to north-west China.
To the Morgenland FestivalThe Osnabrück Peace Day includes a concert from the "Musica pro Pace" series, organised by the Osnabrück Peace Talks, the churches and the city's Department of Culture. "Musica pro Pace" performs compositions that express the horrors of war and the longing for peace.
To Musica pro PaceThe festival was founded in 1989 by its artistic director Herbert Vieth at the same time as the establishment of the North German study centre Forum Artium - today an international music festival in the district of Osnabrück. An important part of the festival are interpretation and masterclasses on the performance practice of early music.
To Musica VivaThe Osnabrück Organ Summer in July/August has been a cherished tradition since 1991, every holiday Tuesday at 8.15 pm in one of the five city centre churches. The church musicians of the main churches and guests play on valuable organs in cool churches. Admission is free! Further information from the Ecumenical Cantors' Convention
Calling the Organ SummerThe largest cabaret festival in north-west Germany takes place in Osnabrück in November/December. From classic political cabaret to sophisticated comedy and wacky chanson, all styles are represented.
To the cabaret festivalYoung 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. organise the POLYCHROMl. POLYCHROM is sponsored by the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation.
To the Polychrom FestivalThe Popsalon is a lively event. It usually takes place over three days in April in different locations in Osnabrück and provides an incomparable, wonderful, shrill, quiet and loud weekend full of music.
To the pop parlourOutstanding live music from the Osnabrück region - organised 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 gardens gives Osnabrück musicians a stage and the audience a relaxed open-air experience.
To the SchlogaAfter a successful start with the Schlossgarten Open Air 2015, the open air festival in the middle of Osnabrück's city centre will continue against a fantastic backdrop. The Fantastischen Vier, Revolverheld, Rea Garvey, Cro, Silbermond, Andreas Bourani and the Beginner have already performed on stage in the Schlossgarten.
To the Schlossgarten Open Air"Summer in the City" is the title of the programme, which presents over 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.
Summer in the cityIn the "Meeting Point for Art and Culture" and in the Gertrudenkirche on the grounds of the AMEOS Clinic in Osnabrück, the Sunday concerts have developed into one of the best-known concert series in the Osnabrück area - mostly classical chamber music concerts, but also including klezmer music, jazz, singing, readings with music or theatre.
To the Sunday concertOsnabrück Theatre is out and about in the city in late summer: visitors can walk or take a bus along various routes to unusual places where a variety of theatre productions are shown, from drama, dance and music to literature. One festival route begins and ends in front of the theatre.
To the play instinctsEvery year in spring, northern Germany's largest student festival offers a three-day festival with various workshops and activities as well as music acts in the evening on the university campus on the Westerberg. It is a highlight for all Osnabrück students and is known far beyond the city limits.
To the terrace partyFive days in October are dedicated to independently produced, socially committed, contemporary films. German and international productions compete for various awards - for short films or documentaries. There is a student award for young talent and, of course, the Osnabrück Peace Film Prize.
To the FilmFestThe 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 in the Kunsthalle, Haus der Jugend and 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!