Events and festivals in Rhineland-Palatinate on the weekend of September 19-20, 2026: Rhine in Flames lights up the sky near Sankt Goar and Sankt Goarshausen, while the Koblenz SchängelMarkt fills the old town.
Saturday night on the Middle Rhine, between two castles. The Loreley region marks one of its biggest evenings of the year on September 19, 2026, with two ruined castles facing each other across the water. Events and festivals in Rhineland-Palatinate on the weekend of September 19-20, 2026: Rhine in Flames lights up the sky near Sankt Goar and Sankt Goarshausen, while the Koblenz SchängelMarkt fills the old town.
Rhine in Flames between Sankt Goar and Sankt Goarshausen
Rhine in Flames has more than sixty years of tradition. It ranks as the largest and most spectacular of the five major fireworks events on the Middle Rhine, held every year between Sankt Goar and Sankt Goarshausen. Saturday, September 19, 2026, is the series peak. This edition draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Loreley region.
Three open-air stages fill the streets of Sankt Goar with music that evening. This year's motto: "Brass on Fire." Brass bands from across Rhineland-Palatinate carry it down to the riverbank, where crowds gather well before dark.
About fifty illuminated ships sail down the Rhine. They form a long flotilla, passing vineyards fading into shadow after sunset.
Rheinfels and Katz fire in sync. From Burg Rheinfels in Sankt Goar and Burg Katz in Sankt Goarshausen, organizers set off a synchronized fireworks display over the river.
A river turned into a stage, two castles into a backdrop, for a single evening.
The rest of the weekend
In Bad Dürkheim, the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt enters its second weekend. As the largest wine festival in the world and one of Germany's most important folk festivals, it draws around 600,000 visitors to the Palatinate every year, across nine festival days on the Wurstmarktplatz. In Alzey, 87th Alzeyer Winzerfest runs for five days. It ranks among the largest and most traditional wine festivals in Rheinhessen: the town celebrates its wine-growing tradition on the Roßmarkt, in the Paeseler-Anlage and in the Rheinisches Dorf, three festival grounds that together draw more than 100,000 people. Landau closes the 133rd Landauer Herbstmarkt mit Weindorf. One of the oldest and most traditional folk festivals in the Palatinate, it turns the Alter Meßplatz on the Nordring into a mix of wine festival, folk festival, flea market and funfair for nine days, open daily from 11am, with an official opening on Saturday at 3pm.
Alongside the fireworks, the Weingasse in Sankt Goarshausen becomes its own wine lane. Winegrowers pour their wines there, a wine fountain runs at its centre, and the town celebrates the summer night against the backdrop of Burg Katz and Burg Rheinfels, with a fireworks display lasting several hours and timed to match the illuminated ships on the river. Further north, Koblenz SchängelMarkt takes over the old town. As the largest town and folk festival in northern Rhineland-Palatinate and the high point of the Koblenz September calendar, it turns the streets between Jesuitenplatz, Münzplatz, Am Plan and the historic quarter into a pulsing festival mile with four stages, live bands, fashion shows, a crafts market and children's activities, drawing around 100,000 visitors. In Sinzig, the Barbarossamarkt runs for three days. It turns the castle park into a lively medieval market, with medieval music, a fire show, mock sword fights, a children's knight tournament and a packed family programme of blacksmithing, carving, archery and juggling, opening on Friday evening from 5pm. On September 19 and 20, Maximilianstraße becomes a market street. Between Domplatz and Heydenreichstraße at Speyer Cathedral, the Speyer farmers market, a classic of the Palatinate's regional market calendar, marks its 31st edition in 2026 with more than 70 vendors from Speyer and the whole Palatinate selling fruit, vegetables and regional produce straight from the farm.
In Frankenthal, tennis clubs contest the Stadtpokal Frankenthal. It is one of the most important local club tournaments of the mid-sized Palatinate town: over two days, players compete in several categories, from women's and men's singles to doubles, mixed and junior events, for the city's trophies. At Neustadt an der Weinstraße, the crown awaits. The preliminary election for German Wine Queen ranks among the most traditional events in German wine culture: on Saturday, September 19, 2026, at 3:45pm, candidates from all 13 German wine regions compete against each other at the Stadthalle Saalbau, organized by the German Wine Institute, which crowns a new German wine ambassador with this vote every year.
The Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt keeps its gates open until September 21.