Festivals : Germany

In Germany, festivals are not the prerogative of the big cities. They are also staged in many charming small towns with their own distinctive atmosphere, such as Schwetzingen with its Rococo theater.
There are more than 100 music festivals alone. Every three years in September Bonn stages its International Beethoven Festival, while in August and September Augsburg’s German Mozart Festival features concerts in a Rococo ambience. The festival in Eutin celebrates the opera composer Carl Maria von Weber, who was born there. Halle and Gottingen focus their festivals on George Frideric Handel; Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen devote theirs to Richard Strauss. The Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth has been staged since 1876. For Wagner fans throughout the world it is like a magnet, for nowhere else in the world can they see so many novel productions of the composer’s works with, as a rule, such spectacular casts.

There is hardly a major city that does not have a music festival: Munich has its Opera Festival (July), Frankfurt am Main the Frankfurt Festival (September), Stuttgart the European Music Festival (August and September), and Berlin its Jazz Festival (November). Dresden has several music festivals and Potsdam the Sanssouci Music Festival; Erfurt features summer concerts in the Bruhler Garten and Weimar its Art Festival. Other highlights include the MDR Music Summer, the Rugen Festival showcasing operas by Rossini, and the International Mosel Music Festival.