Rudolstadt Festival

Rudolstadt · DE

Rudolstadt Festival is Germany's largest folk, roots and world music festival, taking over the whole Thuringian town of Rudolstadt for four days every July with artists from around 40 countries on close to 30 stages, roughly 300 events and about 25,000 concertgoers a day. It grew out of a 1955 folk dance gathering, restarted in its current form in 1991, and now runs from traditional folk and dance through world music and dancefloor nights to outright experiments, with workshops, artist talks, a symposium, garden concerts and a children's festival alongside the music. The 2026 edition ran 2 to 5 July and the next one is set for 1 to 4 July 2027, with Korea as the annual focus country. Stage artists can apply for the 2027 edition between 1 August and 30 September 2026, and street musicians have until 30 November. There is no application form: send a short email with links to 2 or 3 recent live videos, nothing older than 2024, to a named address. Street music slots specifically are unpaid, with no travel or catering covered, though buskers get free entry, parking and artist camping for all four days and keep everything they make from merch and tips. Once you have played the festival you have to sit out three editions before applying again.