Simply more festivals.

Overview of all festivals 2023/2024

We’re excited to introduce you to the festival year 2023/2024 in Baden-Baden with a special emphasis on the term festival. If, as some sources report, it was really Hector Berlioz who first used the term “festival” in 1830, we in Baden-Baden have a special duty to bring the festival back to the center of our work. The French composer took the festival idea to the cultural haven of Baden-Baden, which for some time was simply known among French summer guests as the “7th Arrondissement ”– the artists' quarter, the “place to be” in old Paris. We are confident that the future belongs to the festival. Encounters over a period of several days together with explorations and reflections in the echo chamber of the festival venue lead to lasting nourishment for the soul.

29.9. - 10.10.2023

The World of John Neumeier

The premiere of The World of John Neumeier dance festival in autumn 2022 was met by audiences with enthusiastic acclaim. With The Sleeping Beauty, a favorite of his repertoire, John Neumeier will be building on this success in 2023. In his version of the fairy-tale ballet after Tchaikovsky and Petipa, the prince, a man of our time, meets Sleeping Beauty – a dream princess from the era of classical ballet. The question is, will it be a good awakening? Dona Nobis Pacem, John Neumeier's latest choreography, is a prayer for peace in the language of dance. Because in The World of John Neumeier, there is room for the hope shared by all art lovers: that dreams can move mountains.

To the Festival

18.11. - 26.11.2023

La Grande Gare

Autumn Festival Baden-Baden

A quick read in a pub in Wetzlar – and Jules Massenet was on fire. What followed was the ingenious transformation of Goethe's Werther into a Romantic opera. Massenet frees himself from the original: his Werther might just as well be called Charlotte – a moving psychological drama that the French composer weaves around the young woman who, with Werther, is swept away in a stormy love affair. In Robert Carsen's new production, Jonathan Tetelman and Kate Lindsey sing the leading roles. With the opera, Thomas Hengelbrock opens the “La Grande Gare” Autumn Festival, which will be dedicated to the cultural ties between Germany and France.

To the Festival

10.12. - 17.12.2023

Winter Festival

Baden-Baden

The time when wishes can come true returns again every year: at Advent, when people in Baden-Baden stroll through the Christkindlsmarkt and think about how they can make their loved ones happy. Our proposal: Cinderella with the Bayerische Staatsballett, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. The Briton knows how to entertain: his art is at home not only in the ballet theater, but also on Broadway. His majestic version of the fairy-tale ballet to music by Sergei Prokofiev enchants us with its stunning stage magic.

To the Festival

2.2. - 4.2.24

Takeover Festival

At Takeover, it is all about dreaming, inventing, dancing, and above all trying things out. For the future. For the spirit of togetherness. For music. With stunning acts and exciting workshops in a stylish atmosphere. Give it a try at Takeover!

To the Festival

23.3. - 1.4.2024

Easter Festival Baden-Baden

Berliner Philharmoniker

With works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Jean Sibelius, and Richard Strauss, the 2024 Baden-Baden Easter Festival will be more varied and genre-encompassing than ever before – featuring, as the centerpiece, Richard Strauss’s masterpiece Elektra.

To the Festival

27.5. - 4.6.2023

Retrospect Whitsun Festival Baden-Baden

SWR Symphonieorchester

How does immortality sound?

It simply can’t be: Isolde isn’t dead. She passes over – into another world, into another state, into something that entices us, that we have been longing for all along. Teodor Currentzis will be giving us an intimation of this when he conducts Isoldes Liebestod at the Whitsun Festival, from Wagner's ecstatic, uninhibited music drama Tristan und Isolde. We will then be hearing sweet transfiguration without eroticism in the Third Act of Parsifal, sung by Bayreuth star Andreas Schager. Also to die for – and also by Wagner, who will be the focus of this Whitsun Festival.

To the Festival

1.7. - 9.7.2023

Retrospect La Capitale d' Été

Summer Festival Baden-Baden

The Big Apple in Baden-Baden: The New York Metropolitan Opera brings glamor to the Black Forest. With its orchestra, with principal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and two of its goddesses: Joyce DiDonato and Angel Blue. The program will pay tribute to the festival and world heritage city. Arias from Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens will feature in the "25 Years of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden" Gala Concert. It was Berlioz who invented the festival idea in Baden-Baden in the mid-nineteenth century. At that time, the city was known as the "summer capital of Europe." With this Festival, the tradition is being carried forward: Baden-Baden is “La Capitale d'Été.”

To the Festival