Sonic Teutonic: Top 20+ Music Festivals in Germany [2020]

By Vito Valentinetti / January 12, 2020

Since its inception in 1991, Lollapalooza has continued to grow from it’s U.S. based festival circuit to additional cities in countries across the globe. As the first European city to host Lollapalooza outside of the U.S., Berlin began its entrance into the Lollapalooza festival tour in 2015, and has since grown to over 70,000 attendees.

It's one of the craziest festivals in Europe with a campground that gets so nuts that they have nicknamed it Mordor. Welcome to the Hurricane Festival, the northern counterpart of Southside, which features the same bands over the same 3-day weekends. There's always a diverse lineup with rock and German acts taking the center stage.

The Melt! Festival, surrounded by the calm waters of Lake Gremmin and the steely silence of the iron city, is filled with the musical noise of one of Germany's standout lineups. Camping is a must at this German festival, and the open-air museum of an abandoned coal factory marks this as a one-of-kin venue.

It's been dubbed The Mecca of Heavy Metal Culture. For three days in August, the population of the tiny town of Wacken swells from 2,000 to 75,000 for this annual gathering of German metalheads. This monster of a festival started off small in 1990 as a showcase for local bands, but has become a juggernaut of the metal festival scene.

It's all about the hardstyle at the Airbeat One Festival in Neustadt-Glewe, Germany. For over 15 years, Airbeat One has entertained fans with the harder side of electronic music, putting on an event that features forward thinking stage design, epic light shows, and top notch DJs from around the world.

Heavy metal and goth mix it up at this German festival outside of Hannover at a former British military airbase. The atmospheric experience is only heightened by with a fine selection of gothic, industrial, and metal artists.

It's one of Germany's most popular 3-day festivals, but MS Dockville isn't as well known outside the country. The non-profit event mixes up a combination of music and art along the edges of the River Elbe. The avant-garde event offers plenty of events to keep you surprised along with the year's top touring artists.

With such a whimsical name, one hardly expects what the Summer Breeze Open Air Festival actually delivers -- heavy metal and lots of it to over 40,000 attendees. Summer Breeze just turned twenty years old, so if you're looking for experience and hard metal in Germany, then this is the place.

The simultaneous Rock Am Park/Rock Im Ring is Germany's largest mega-festival with a combined attendance of 150,000 at both festivals. The same artists play two different locations during the first weekend in June. Festivals may evolve and change over the years, but rock music will always remain the core of these festivals.

World Club Dome is a massive electronic music festival that takes place at the Frankfurt Arena in Germany. It's called the 'Biggest Club in the World' with more than 200 DJs playing on 20 stages over 3 days pumping out 1.8 millions of watt. Radio station BigCityBeats, who puts on the festival, also organizes a winter edition and one in South Korea.

The 3-day Ikarus Festival is a camping fest that takes place on the grounds of a former military airfield. Techno, house, psy-trance, deep house, hard techno, and more are represented by more than 100 international acts on 6 individual stages. The mix of nature and concrete gives this festival a unique backdrop.

The twin sister festival of Hurricane to the north, Southside wrestles up an identical roster of talent over the same three days. Expect plenty of indie rock, mainstream acts, and some of the top names in German music to perform.

London's ultimate summer music festival comes to Germany. Every year, the Wireless Festival brings an epic-sized lineup with past artists including New Order, The Strokes, Daft Punk, Jay-Z, Morrisey, Kanye West, and LCD Soundsystem.

Germany's national hip-hop artists mix with international superstars at the Splash! Festival. The mining equipment and beaches of the legendary Ferropolis venue are the backdrop to three days of hip-hop and reggae.

There's more to Sea You than just two full days with more than a 100 artists playing on 7 stages. There's chilling on the water with views of the Black Forest. There's free wake-boarding. There's dancing in and on the water. It's Germany's largest beach club and you're invited.

After taking a year off, Love Family Park returns to Rüsselsheim am Main in Mainz in Germany. The single day festival is a techno lover's dream with music running from morning until sunset, dipping into all the sub-genres along the way. Huge names lead the lineup, but festies have a chance to see some of the real up and comers of the scene at Love Family Park.

For their 25th anniversary, Nature One in Germany is going even bigger than ever with 350 DJs and live acts on over 20 stages. Their 100 hectare campsite promises to be just as insane. Massive stage production, the best talent in the world, German sized campgrounds -- what more do you want out of your summer?

For three decades, Open Flair has been mixing up heavy rock with local talent at this annual festival. Backed by a dedicated fanbase, this is the best place to catch upcoming German rockstars next to big name international names.

Let's go to Bavaria for a punk rock festival! The Taubertal Festival has been bringing 20,000 hard rocking fans together for twenty years on the banks of the Tauber river.

Over the course of a single day, the Ruhr-in-Love Festival features an astounding 400+ DJs at this family electronic festival. With 40 stages and 50,000 revelers, you're sure to find a genre that hits your musical sweet spot.

When it started back in 2005, the Deichbrand Festival sold 500 tickets. Last year, the attendance at the festival hit 60,000 festies all there to catch a mix of metal, indie-rock, hip-hop, and pop. This camping festival takes place at the Cuxhaven/Nordholz sea airport in the north of Germany.

Highfield is the largest independent rock festival in eastern Germany held over three days near Leipzig. The setting at the Störmthaler See is incredible -- a man made lake with beaches, swimming, and ideal summer camping.

It's seven music festivals in one! This new German festival burst onto the scene in 2017 and has become one of the main events at the end of summer. 150 DJs perform at The Nürburgring, a 150,000 capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg.