As the summer music season heats up, travelers are looking to finalize their plans when it comes to attending the biggest and best music festivals around the world.
For your music loving client, Germany’s festival season is in full swing this summer with events and celebrations everywhere. With musical heavy weights like Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner being German, music is in their blood. Many of the concerts are happening outdoors, inviting travelers to fully relish the warm temperatures of the season.
More than 150,000 music fans will gather together to enjoy Germany’s biggest rock festival, Rock am Ring in Eifel, with an international line-up of rock bands from June 5 – 8, 2014. The sister festival, Rock im Park, takes place on the same dates but in Nuremberg.
A classical highlight on the calendar is the annual Bachfest in Leipzig held June 13 – 22, 2014. The 300th anniversary of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in 2014 provides the opportunity to focus on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach’s second oldest son.
Berlin goes all out on the longest day of the year and the official beginning of summer on June 21. Fete de la Musique includes more than 80 open-air stages, a street festival and music variety from reggae to jazz to hip hop.
In July and August, as a tribute to 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner, the town of Bayreuth holds an annual festival playing his operas, including Parsifal. The event has sold out continuously since 1876.
Germany is also home to the world’s largest open air Heavy Metal Festival taking place every summer in the small town of Wacken. The event, July 31 – August 2, is so popular that in 2014 there is a waiting list and subsequent raffle for tickets.
German National Tourist Office, www.germany.travel