Events and festivals in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern over the weekend of 22-23 August 2026: the Sail Grand Prix brings thirteen national teams to Sassnitz, Wismar holds its Swedish Festival, knights camp at Penzlin Castle.
More than a hundred kilometres an hour. Off the Ostmole in Sassnitz, the foiling catamarans of the SailGP series line up on August 22, 2026. Events and festivals in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern over the weekend of 22-23 August 2026 run from a sailing race under the chalk cliffs to the Swedish Festival in Wismar and a knights' camp at Penzlin Castle.
Thirteen national teams on F50 catamarans off Sassnitz
The ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix comes to the Rügen region for the first time in 2026. The racing happens off Sassnitz, with the Windpromenade and the Ostmole forming the spectator line and the town harbour serving as the venue for the weekend.
Thirteen national teams compete.
Their boats are F50s, foilers: past a certain speed they lift the hull clear of the water and run on hydrofoils. More than a hundred kilometres an hour is within reach. From the shore, the fleet looks like a set of sails that has lost contact with the surface for long stretches at a time.
Sassnitz sits on the east coast of Rügen, below the Jasmund national park. The chalk cliffs make the backdrop the racing runs against, and for two days the town harbour turns into the stage for one of the most spectacular sailing events in the world.
SailGP is an international series with changing host venues. Racing off Sassnitz runs on August 22, 2026 and again the following day.
From the Swedish Festival to the knights' camp
Wismar spends four days as a Swedish town. The Swedish Festival recalls the years from 1648 to 1803, when the Hanseatic city belonged to the Swedish crown, and stretches its festival mile from the old town down to the Alter Hafen, with Swedish artists and bands on several stages and the Carolean army camp staging mock battles. Since the year 2000 it has grown into the largest Swedish festival outside Sweden.
Penzlin takes the detour through the Middle Ages: at the Alte Burg, known for its museum of everyday magic and its witches' cellar, the castle festival puts knights under canvas for three days, among a huge wooden water wheel, Viking boats and a newly built wooden siege engine.
Warnemünde measures strength.
In the Strand Arena below the lighthouse, Battle the Beach pits two-person teams from several countries against each other in CrossFit disciplines involving loads, bodyweight and gymnastic elements, free for anyone watching. Waren on the Müritz closes the season of the Müritz-Saga on Saturday, the open-air theatre that has staged historical material written for its own lakeside stage since 2006.
Sunday belongs to classical music. Nemanja Radulović plays Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Konzertkirche in Neubrandenburg, an evening of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, ranked as the third-largest classical festival in Germany. At Löcknitz Castle in south-eastern Vorpommern, the Brandenburg Concert Orchestra Eberswalde under Urs-Michael Theus gives its open-air concert inside the historic castle grounds.
Zinnowitz, 22 August: on the seafront promenade of the Baltic resort, Küstenklänge runs a two-day weekend of blues and rock with the sea at the musicians' backs.