Baden-Württemberg lines up numerous events on October 3 and 4, 2026, from the Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest in Stuttgart to the rubber duck race in Tübingen.
Four years of waiting are over. At the Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart, the Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest opens its gates on October 3 and 4, 2026, while other towns and cities across the region, from Heidelberg to Lake Constance, host their own festivals. Baden-Württemberg lines up numerous events this weekend, from the Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest in Stuttgart to the rubber duck race in Tübingen.
The Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest at the Cannstatter Wasen
The Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest closes its gates on Sunday. Its 102nd edition ran for eight days on the Cannstatter Wasen, where southern Germany's largest trade and public fair for agriculture, forestry and food has taken place since the early 19th century, but only once every four years.
Around 700 exhibitors fill the vast grounds in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. They come from farm machinery, forestry, horticulture, viticulture, livestock and food production, with demonstration areas for farm and forestry machines and a dedicated hall for direct sales of regional produce.
Cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry take centre stage in the livestock shows. In the halls next door, machines are demonstrated, talks are held and workshops run, for two audiences at once: trade visitors negotiating with manufacturers and suppliers, and a general public drawn to farming as a way of life.
The fair counts over 300,000 visitors. It runs for eight days. For families, a petting zoo opens, alongside hands-on stations, so that a morning at the livestock show, a midday visit to the food hall and an afternoon machinery demonstration fit into a single day.
Pairing a trade fair with a folk festival is a Stuttgart habit.
Running alongside the Hauptfest, as in every four-year cycle, is the Cannstatter Volksfest on the very same grounds, two festivals sharing one stretch of tents and exhibition halls.
The rest of the weekend, from the Neckar to Lake Constance
On the same Wasen, the 179th Cannstatter Volksfest runs in parallel, with eight large tents, around 300 showmen and about four million visitors across its 17 days, the second-largest folk festival in the world after Munich's Oktoberfest. In Kirchheim unter Teck, the wool market turns entirely around sheep and wool. Around 60 traders sell there, around the Freihofschule and parts of Wollmarktstraße.
The 5th R·I·M· Festival runs for three evenings. In the Madertal valley near Haigerloch, the line-up goes from country on Friday to rock and metal on Saturday and brass band music on Sunday. At Schwetzingen Palace, the Schwetzingen Mozart Festival marks its 50th anniversary these days with chamber concerts in the historic halls of the rococo palace.
Sasbachwalden in the Black Forest holds the 77th edition of its harvest and wine festival from 3 October 2026. Its wine queens are crowned on Saturday, ahead of a large parade of flower-decorated floats on Sunday. In Tübingen, thousands of yellow rubber ducks paddle down the Neckar. From the Alleenbrücke to the Eberhardsbrücke, starting at 2pm on October 3, the 28th duck race runs its course.
On Mainau island on Lake Constance, the 20th Gräfliches Schlossfest opens rooms of the castle usually closed to the public. Fashion, jewellery and home accessory boutiques move in for the occasion. At Europa-Park in Rust, over 180,000 pumpkins decorate the entire grounds for the Halloween season, with daily shows and a parade down the park's main street. In Wertheim, the Michaelismesse turns the old town for ten days into one of southern Germany's most traditional autumn folk festivals. An opening cannon shot, a large parade and closing fireworks mark the occasion.
The livestock shows and exhibition halls of the Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest open both days from 9am, through to the close of its 102nd edition on Sunday evening, after which the Wasen waits another four years for the fair to return.