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LIVING IN GERMANY

8 interesting festivals to check out in Germany this summer

From traditional wine festivals to sailboat races to concerts or every form, there are plenty of new experiences to be had in Germany this summer. As days get longer and the season begins to change, here's some interesting events to consider adding to your calendar.

Published: 6 March 2024 16:34 CET
Updated: 9 March 2024 06:10 CET
dragon breathing fire
A scene from the folk play "Der Drachenstich" during the dress rehearsal. The festival with 350 amateur actors is said to be the oldest folk play in Germany, happening each summer in Furth in Wald. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Armin Weigel

The Würzburg Wine Village

Wine lovers in Germany would be well advised to start this summer with a visit to the Lower Franconian city of Würzburg to join in a celebration of the region’s 1,200-year-old wine-making traditions.

This year’s festival is scheduled from May 29th to June 9th, and takes place at Würzburg’s Upper and Lower Market Squares.

With 12 different innkeepers serving local wines and fare, bands performing traditional music, and the ‘Franconian Wine Princesses’ donning their dirndls, you can expect a stimulating atmosphere similar to that of a beer fest, but with a much bigger focus on grape-based libations.

If the Wine Village doesn’t work for your schedule, Würzburg hosts a number of wine fests from spring through early fall. The city’s wine events start in April with the ‘Wine Press Hall Festival’ (Kelterhallen Weinfest), and end with the city’s wine parade (Weinparade Würzburg) in September. 

For more information see the Würzburg Wine Village website.

Rock im Park

One of Germany’s biggest rock music festivals, this year’s Rock im Park lineup has some big names that are sure to please rock fans who grew up in the 80s, 90s, or even after the 2000s.

Rock im Park takes place from June 7th to 9th in Nuremberg. Tickets include on-site camping.

With rock legends like Green Day and Queens, Dropkick Murphys and Queens of the Stone Age among the festival’s headliners, this year’s Rock im Park is sure to draw in quite the crowd.

Find more information at the festival website.

Sea You Festival

Some music festival goers seek out the best artist line-ups, whereas others seek out the best environments to camp and party in. Sea You Festival, self-described as “one of the most beautiful beach festivals in Germany” aims to deliver both.

inflatable flamingos on a lake

Inflatable flamingos on Lake Tunis with a floating dance floor in the background. Sea You is one of the largest festivals for electronic music in the southwest. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Philipp von Ditfurth

This year Sea You will take place on the shore on Tunisee, near Freiburg, from July 19th to the 21st.

Located in one of Germany’s sunniest locales, Sea You is among the county’s warmest music festivals on offer. Visitors can float on the lake nearby to cool off between music performances at one of the festival’s seven stages. 

More information and tickets can be found at Sea You’s website.

48 Stunden Neukölln

48 hours Neukölln is the largest independent art festival in Berlin, taking place in Berlin’s Neukölln neighbourhood each summer.

This year’s festival will begin on June 28th, and continue for two days with numerous events taking place in a multitude of venues throughout Berlin’s most ethnically diverse neighbourhood.

This year’s theme is “urban silence”. According to the events organisers, most related events will take place within walking distance of the Karl-Marx-Strasse, Boddinstrasse or Sonnenallee U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations.

More information and an event program is available on the event’s website.

Kieler Woche

This one is for sailors and sailing enthusiasts: based in the capital city of the northern state Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel week consists of a series of speed sailing races as well as music performances and other related events.

This year’s Kiel week officially starts on June 22nd, with ‘classic week’ (which includes races between bigger classic style sailboats) starting the week before.

The city of Kiel boasts a long history as a sailing hub – this will be the 143rd Kieler Woche. Watching a high-speed sailing race can be a thrilling experience for sailors and non-sailors alike, and the event offers an excuse to travel to the North Sea at the top of summer.

Find information in English here.

Eat Play Love

Boasting abundant street food, watersports, and live music – Cologne’s Eat Play Love festival has a little something for everyone looking to liven up their weekend with some summer vibes.

This year’s festival is scheduled to start on August 15th.

Located at Fühlinger See, Eat Play Love is readily accessible from Cologne by bus, S-Bahn or U-Bahn, and beyond its food and music offerings, it is host to a world class wakeboarding competition.

Find more information and tickets on the festival’s website.

Der Drachenstich

Every August Furth in Wald, a small Bavarian town near the Czech border, is home to Germany’s oldest folk theatre event, “The Dragon Sting.”

Based partly on myth and partly on regional history, Der Drachenstich, is an epic theatrical work complete with an enormous fire-breathing dragon. 

In addition to the performance, visitors are invited to observe the pageant parade, on August 11th this year, which includes 1,200 costumed performers, 250 horses, Medieval carriages, cannons, palanquins, and music groups.

Find more information at the Drachenstich website.

Wattolümpiade

Each August the mud olympics, or Wattolümpiade, brings athletes from around the world to the banks of the Elbe River in Brunsbüttel to compete in a series of games, all in the middle of the river’s thick mud.

two men in mud

Participants in the Wattolümpiade throw themselves into the mudflats. At the charity event recreational athletes compete in the disciplines of mudflat soccer, mudflat handball, wooliball and mud sledge racing. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Marcus Brandt

But according to the event’s organisers, this year’s Wattolümpiade on August 17th will be the event’s official finale. 

While official registration for the event has already been filled, an announcement on the event website assures aspiring mud athletes that: “This much is certain: If you want to get dirty again for a good cause, you will definitely get the opportunity to do so.”

Competitive games include mudflat football, wading handball, and mud sled races among others, and the event is designed to raise money for cancer patients in Schleswig-Holstein.

More information is found at the Wattolümpiade website.

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LIVING IN GERMANY

‘Clunky process’: The steps you need to take to get married in Germany

Getting married in Germany is not for the faint of heart. The Local spoke to a foreign national who recently tied the knot to learn more about the process and the challenges. Here's what you should know before you step up to the altar.

Published: 16 May 2024 11:02 CEST
'Clunky process': The steps you need to take to get married in Germany

Whether to a German or another foreign national, getting married in Germany is not a far-fetched prospect for many foreign residents, especially those who arrive single and decide to settle down for the longer term.

But those who dare to propose (or say yes) are promptly met with an ugly reality. The process to legally marry in Germany is a beast.

In fact, just learning about the requirements to do so is enough to send a fair amount of engaged couples packing – literally, they pack and go to Denmark for their marriage.

“It was like the final boss of German bureaucracy,” Liam Kelley, Berlin resident from Canada, told The Local about his experience preparing to be wed in Germany’s capital last year.

But Liam is walking proof that it can be done, and there are certain advantages to marrying within the country that you live – namely not needing to apply to have your foreign marriage recognised in Germany. 

So if you’re recently engaged, or thinking about it, and ready to do battle with the bureaucracy, here’s what you should know about getting married in Germany and the challenges involved:

Start with the paperwork

Before you can apply for a wedding at your local registry office (Standesamt), you’ll need a few documents. Note that some cities require you to first schedule a consultation at the Standesamt, where they’ll explain which documents you’ll need.

Generally the following are required:

  • Birth certificates
  • Valid passports or IDs
  • A registration certificate for your current address in Germany not older than 14 days (Erweiterte Meldebescheinigung). But in some cities the Standesamt can pull this information for you.
  • A certificate of no impediment to marriage (Ehefähigkeitszeugnis). This is usually provided by your home country. Formerly wed and divorced partners can usually present a divorce certificate instead.

Where this all gets a bit complicated is that these documents may need to be translated to German by accredited interpreters, and authenticated or apostilled by official authorities as well.

“The most challenging part was gathering all the documents and having them properly notarised within the various time windows,” Liam told The Local.

As listed above, Liam needed a fresh confirmation of his residence despite already being registered at a Berlin address along with his fiancée. That document needed to be no more than two weeks old.

Simultaneously, Liam needed his birth certificate, notarised by the Canadian government that was no older than six months. The birth certificate also needed to be translated by an accredited interpreter. 

“The process was clunky,” Liam said, “after receiving the birth certificate, I basically had to send it back to get it notarised by the same authorities. All of this by snail mail too, so I was worried about things getting lost in the post.”

Hustle to get an appointment

When you’ve got all of your documents in order, you can make an appointment at the registry office to have your application reviewed, and hopefully collect their approval to be wed. This comes in the form of a certificate, which is only valid for six months. 

Should you fail to perform the ceremony within that time, the document expires and you’d need to start again at the beginning – recollecting some of the documents that would be considered expired by then.

“The Standesamt that gave us our certificate didn’t have any appointments within that window, so we needed to call around for another Standesamt that could service us,” Liam said.

He called quite a few of Berlin’s registry offices before he found one with an opening within the next six months, but in the end he succeeded in scheduling the wedding.

READ ALSO: How Berlin’s immigration office wants to make it easier to get an appointment

In Germany’s bigger cities, registry offices can be fully booked months in advance which can make trying to schedule a wedding within the six month window a challenge. 

Once your marriage certificate has been granted, you are eligible to be wed at any German Standesamt, even in a different city, for example. Smaller towns or other cities may have the advantage of having more availability for weddings, depending where you live. In this case, you will need to make the appointment at the other Standesamt, and then inform the local office where you registered, which sends over the authorisation on your behalf.

Liam and Julie get married

Newlyweds Liam Kelley and Julie Bourgeois pose in front the Berlin registry office where they had just married. Photo provided by Liam Kelley.

A quick and practical ceremony

Note that all legally binding weddings in Germany take place in a registry office. If you are dreaming of a church wedding or an outdoor ceremony, you can do so separately. But the legal marriage must happen in the Standesamt.

On your wedding day, you’ll need to bring your ID or passport to the registry office. In Germany, it is customary for each partner to bring a witness (Trauzeuge), and you can also invite a small group of family or close friends.

If your German is not sufficient, you will need a sworn-in interpreter for the ceremony as well.

You can expect the ceremony to last 15 minutes and to be performed very punctually. 

On the day of Liam’s wedding in Berlin, the registry office’s wedding hall was fully booked, with his wedding being one of four performed that hour. Therefore, it’s important to be on time and well-prepared. He and his fiancée were able to choose a song that was played as they and their guests took their places before the ceremony began.

All’s well that ends well

Liam noted one hiccup occurred when the bride’s witness was asked to sign the marriage document, and he asked the officiant in English if he should put his whole name or initials. Suddenly, the officiant got very serious and paused the ceremony to ask the witness several times in German if he understood everything that had happened thus far.

“She (the officiant) freaked out because she was worried that he didn’t understand what he was signing, and he just kept responding that he did understand, but in English, exacerbating the situation,” Liam said.

For Liam, despite knowing how challenging it would be, getting married in the country where he lives just made sense: “I plan on living in Germany for some time, pay taxes here, contribute to public health care, and my son will attend school here. It’s probably just neurotic, but I am at ease thinking it’s all in the same country.”

READ ALSO: Ehegattensplitting – How did Germany’s marriage tax law become so controversial?

Also, going out of Germany for the wedding would have added some expense for travel and lodging.

In the end, knowing what they were getting into and doing their best to be proactive about paperwork and appointments, made the challenge manageable for Liam and his partner.

Liam also noted that the Standesamt employees were immensely friendly and helpful throughout the process.

READ ALSO: 10 things you need to know about German weddings

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