Events and festivals in North Rhine-Westphalia on the weekend of September 19-20, 2026: the Blumenkorso Legden marks its 100th anniversary with up to 450,000 visitors expected in Legden.
Sunday afternoon, deep in Münsterland. In Legden, September 20, 2026 belongs to flower floats and folk costumes. Events and festivals in North Rhine-Westphalia on the weekend of September 19-20, 2026: the Blumenkorso Legden marks its 100th anniversary with up to 450,000 visitors expected in Legden.
A century for the Blumenkorso Legden
The Blumenkorso Legden reaches a round number this time. On Sunday, September 20, 2026, the parade in Münsterland marks its 100th anniversary, as Germany's only dahlia parade and a one-of-a-kind occasion for the region.
About 24 floats move through Legden's center. Each one is decorated with roughly one million dahlias. The procession sets off from the main square at 2:30pm and winds slowly through the streets, past rows of spectators lining the route from the square to the edge of town to see the flower-covered floats up close. Around 450 children walk alongside the floats, joined by folk costume groups and several brass bands.
Organizers expect a record crowd. Up to 450,000 visitors are expected along the route for the anniversary edition, one of the largest crowds of the entire weekend anywhere in North Rhine-Westphalia. Nowhere else in Germany does this exist. Legden is the only town with its own dahlia parade, bringing together costume groups, bands and flower-covered floats in one procession.
The rest of the weekend
In Münsterland, the Warendorf Stallion Parades mark a major anniversary. On September 19 and 20, 2026, they celebrate the 200th anniversary of the North Rhine-Westphalia state stud, with around 100 stallions, carriage displays and uniformed quadrilles. Drolshagen follows suit in the Sauerland. The town holds its harvest and livestock show the same weekend, one of the region's oldest agricultural festivals since its first edition in 1853, judging around 200 animals alongside a fairground and festival tent.
In Duisburg, a festival closes. The Ruhrtriennale ends there on September 20, 2026, with Marina Abramović's installation "Balkan Erotic Epic" in the Landschaftspark power station as the season's highlight, alongside 5 world premieres and 9 German premieres in its final festival week. Dortmund celebrates its museum night. The city opens its 26th DEW21 Museumsnacht on September 19, 2026, with around 40 museums and galleries open, a musical fireworks display on Friedensplatz and 3D facade mapping on the Dortmund U tower, a format the city pioneered. Iserlohn opens its crime season. The twelfth edition of Mord am Hellweg starts there on 19–20 September 2026, Europe's largest international crime writing festival with more than 200 authors, including Sebastian Fitzek and Val McDermid.
Solingen fills its festival tent. From September 18 to 26, 2026, the 3,000-seat tent hosts the Bergisches Oktoberfest, now in its 10th edition, with Mickie Krause, die Paveier and Cat Ballou on stage, backed every night by house band Blechsauga. Rahden turns to flea markets. On September 19 and 20, the town center becomes the biggest flea market between Dortmund and Hanover, drawing more than 20,000 visitors a day to the Rahden flea market, where hobby and professional traders line up stall after stall along the streets. Wuppertal starts its road race. On September 19, the 58th Wuppertaler Volkslauf runs around the Ronsdorf reservoir, organized by SV Bayer Wuppertal together with health insurer AOK and the city.