“Life is a festival only to the wise,” Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote.

With over 10,000 festivals, including some of the world’s biggest and strangest, Germany is certainly a place sagacious souls can appreciate.

From the raucous parties of Karnival to the acclaimed Berlinale film festival to the famously merry Christmas markets, there’s something in Germany’s festival calendar to suit everyone’s tastes.

Some of the traditional German celebrations include Bayreuth’s Richard Wagner Festival, Munich’s restrained commemoration of beer, Oktoberfest, the world’s largest trade fair for books in Frankfurt, Bonn’s Beethoven Festival and the Munich Opera Festival.

Since the mid-1980s, however, there has been a rapid expansion of new, more niche-market festivals in Germany. Night owls and museum geeks can revel together during Berlin’s Long Night of the Museums, an eve when the city’s museums and cultural institutions stay open into the wee hours. Fans of avant-garde film can fill their heads with new, esoteric anecdotes at Videonale, Bonn’s festival for art and experimental videos. Even secret Dungeons and Dragons-lovers can find a home at Bavaria’s medieval reenactment festival Festival-Mediaval.

Whether you’re just visiting Germany or have lived here for a while, attending a festival can be an easy and exciting way to discover German culture. To help get you started, we are giving you a helping hand by highlighting some of the most important and interesting festivals, carnivals, music, film, art and cultural events in Germany in 2009.  

Walpurgisnacht (Walpurgis Night), celebrated on April 30 or May 1, is a traditional holiday marked in Germany, Sweden, Finland and many other Baltic states. In German folklore, Walpurgisnacht is when witches meet on the Brocken mountain, the highest peak in the Harz mountains, and hold revels with their gods. Contemporary celebrations are somewhat like Halloween—children dress up as witches and monsters, teenagers concoct elaborate pranks, and public bonfires are held. Noise, it is believed, drives out the evil spirits, so this is not a night to go to bed early!

May

Munich Ballet Week
May 3-10
Munich

Perhaps the most exciting time of the year for the Bavarian State Ballet is Munich Ballet Week, when they, along with other international companies, put on a week's worth of performances for enchanted audiences. Over the last few decades, this event has become one of the most prestigious of its kind, drawing visitors from across Europe and beyond.

This year is the Bavarian State Ballet's 20th anniversary and highlights of the program include a specially commissioned work, Jiri Kyliàn's Migrating Birds (Zugvügel), and a performance of the Terpsichore Gala VIII in honor of the legendary troupe of Russian dancers, the Ballets Russes, who initiated the development towards modern dance in the early 20th century.

www.bayerische.staatsoper.de

39th International Dixieland Festival Dresden
May 13-17
Dresden

Many a saintly visitor goes marching in to Dresden in early May to check out the city's festival of Dixieland and early jazz music. Known particularly for its open-air events on the Elbe River, the festival boasts over 350 artists every year. Don't forget to drop by the Dixie parade and to catch a show by one of the city’s many street performers!

shop.dixieland.de

21st International Africa Festival
May 29-June 1
Würzburg

This international Afro roots festival is Europe’s biggest festival for African music and culture. The celebration features concerts, a bazaar, an artisans' fair and a film and lecture program. This year, the festival is showcasing the traditional music and culture of African peoples that are, in different ways, under threat: the Congo Pygmies, the so-called Bush People from southern Africa and the Surma people from south-eastern Ethiopia.

www.africafestival.org

Carnival of Cultures Berlin
May 29-June 1
Berlin

This vibrant, four-day street festival aims at celebrating and opening dialogue with and between Berlin's diverse ethnic communities. Over 5,000 performers, from amateur to professional, flood the streets and stages of Kreuzberg and parties take place all over the city. The main stage is at Blücherplatz and the children's stage is at Mariannenplatz.

www.karneval-berlin.de

Bonn Summer Festival
May to late October
Bonn

You know a city is dedicated to celebration when it's summer festival lasts not days, not weeks, but five months. The Bonn Summer Festival, or “Bonner Summer,” is the bustling city's main summer festival. The festival is open air and free. Its over 100 events focus mainly on celebrating cultural diversity, with concerts, performances, fireworks and other activities taking place all around the city. One of the festival’s most interesting offerings is a program of silent films, scored by live music, that are screened in the university courtyard.

http://www.bonn.de

Also:

The Rhine in Flames fireworks festival, particularly in Koblenz (May-September).
www.rhein-in-flammen.de

Red Wine Festival in Rudesheim (mid- to late May).
www.rudesheim.de

Mozart Festival in Wurzburg (May 29-July 5).
www.mozartfest.de

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