Bardentreffen - Meeting Of The Bards
Every year, the city of Nuremberg in Bavaria hosts the Meeting of the Bards (Bardentreffen), a huge, free music festival that takes over the streets of Nuremberg city and brings the idea of a bard as an entertainer bang up to date. While the title may suggest lutes and epic poems, the festival is all about what is currently hot in the world music, pop and singer-songwriter scenes.
The Meeting of the Bards (Bardentreffen)
There are eight stages of music scattered throughout the city, as well as buskers playing in the streets. Music is everything here! Over 200.000 people come to bask in the creative atmosphere every year, and over 400 artists show off their skills.
The theme of 2024 is "Mediterranean Crossings", and the lineup has been carefully selected to demonstrate the wide array of talent and range of musical sounds that this global melting pot has produced. From showing the impact that Arabic and Jewish music had on Spain to help create flamenco, or drawing lines between North African Gnawa and southern Italian tarantella music, the best musicians from around the Mediterranean show that all their cultures have been touched and impacted by each other.
Headline acts this year include La Delio Valdez, an Argentinian 15-piece band who play a mix of cumbia, Andean music, salsa, ska and reggae, Baiuca, a Spanish artist who fuses electronica with folk music and folklore, and Marina Satti, a superstar in her homeland of Greece who plays music that mixes Balkan, Greek and Middle Eastern sounds.
Photo credit: La Delio Valdez
History of the Meeting of the Bards
The Bardentreffen was founded almost 50 years ago, in 1976 as a songwriting competition to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of the Nuremberg shoemaker and poet Hans Sachs, who is famous to this day as a character in Wagner's "Meistersinger" opera. Over the years the festival grew, the stages became larger and the types of music changed to fit with the times, but it remains one of the most charming music festivals out there.
The stages around Nuremberg
While you might find buskers in any part of the city during the Meeting of the Bards, there are eight main stages where the highlighted acts perform. Here is some further information on some of the stages:
Hauptmarkt
The main market square in Nuremberg becomes the central hub of the whole festival. All the other stages can be found within a 10-minute walk from this point, and the Hauptmarkt itself is where the headline acts perform. This stage can get very busy!
Insel Schütt
Known as the most beautiful stage of the festival, this stage is set in the trees between two branches of the river and has a calm and airy atmosphere. It's still a big stage, however, and half of all the festival stalls are located here.
St Katharina
Set in the ruins of the St Katharina monastery, this stage has a very special and unique vibe, with a lot of attention given to creating moving moments.
Lorenzer Platz
New acts and proven heroes from the regional music scene make their presence felt on this stage, just behind the St Lorenz Church.
Kreuzigungshof
With just 300 seats, this is the smallest venue of the festival. This is the place for intimate concerts by smaller groups.
The remaining stages are set up on Sebalder Platz, Tödelmarkt and Karolinenstraße.
Attending the Meeting of the Bards
No tickets are required so you can just turn up and explore! The music starts at 5pm on Friday, July 26 and at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28. The whole festival is free to attend, but if you want to help ensure it can keep returning, you can donate at any of the information booths around town.
Nuremberg is easily reached by train from the rest of Germany, and the festival is best experienced on foot, as you never know who you come across playing on the corner. As the stages are all outdoors, make sure you prepare for whatever the weather might throw at you!
You can find out more about the lineup and what's going on on the Meeting of the Bards website.
Video credit: Youtube / Bardentreffen Festival