Grabow welcomes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's state harvest festival on October 3 and 4, 2026, with a grand parade, while Rügen hosts a half-marathon and Usedom lights up the coast for German Unity Day.
For the second time since 1996. Grabow, in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim, hosts the Landeserntedankfest, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's state harvest festival, on 03.10.2026 and 4.10.26. The half-timbered town on the river Elde welcomes a grand parade, while Rügen hosts a half-marathon and Usedom lights up the coast for German Unity Day.
The state harvest festival in Grabow
Grabow takes over the baton for the state's harvest festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's most important agricultural event. The small town in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim, whose old town counts more than 160 historic half-timbered houses, last hosted the event in 1996: thirty years separate the two editions. In 2025, Wismar's mayor Kathleen Bartels received the symbolic baton, which she now passes on to the town on the Elde.
By Saturday noon, the old town turns into a festival mile: stalls selling regional produce, craft stands and a children's area line the streets. Meanwhile, a farmers' olympics takes place on the sports ground, with teams competing in a ploughing contest.
Sunday belongs to the grand parade, led by the central harvest crown. Historic and modern farm machinery, threshers, floats from surrounding farms, marching bands and folk costume groups move through the streets, opened by a harvest thanksgiving service. Livestock shows and several stages with live music carry the day into the evening.
Under the Low German motto »Tüffeln, Trecker un Tohus«, Grabow celebrates potatoes, farm machinery and home. Entry to the festival stays free; only a few evening concerts and the farmers' olympics carry a fee.
A book fair, a beer tent and fireworks on the coast
On the Wittow peninsula, the Kap Arkona Run sets off, one of the most scenic half-marathons in Germany: the route leads from Juliusruh along the chalk coast to the lighthouses at Cape Arkona and back, alongside a 10-kilometre run and a 400-metre race for the youngest participants. On the beach at Juliusruh, colourful kites rise at the same time for the Juliusruh Kite Festival, the traditional close of the Baltic season. Further west, in the Sporthalle West in Kühlungsborn, former professionals from the German dance show »Let's Dance« lead more than eighty workshops a day, the highlight of the Kühlungsborn Dances series.
In the Strandhalle in Ahrenshoop, around 15 publishers gather for the Ahrenshoop Literary Days, the state's largest book fair. In Rostock's city harbour, the Rostock Oktoberfest taps its kegs inside a large festival tent, with beer mugs, brass bands and Bavarian costumes against the maritime backdrop of shipyard and river Warnow. Folk classics and Oberkrainer sound alternate with party hits.
For German Unity Day, the seaside resorts of the island of Usedom light up more than 80 minutes of fireworks along 42 kilometres of coast at the Kaiserbäder XXL Beach Fireworks, from Karlshagen to the imperial resorts of Bansin, Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck. At the KARLS adventure village near Rostock, the farm turns into a Halloween world for the KARLS Spooky Night in Rövershagen, with a drone show and a glow-in-the-dark parade that has drawn tens of thousands of families for more than three decades.