Rhineland-Palatinate lines up events and festivals for the weekend of September 5 and 6, 2026: the Weinfest der Mittelmosel in Bernkastel-Kues, the VR-Kaiserfestival in Koblenz and seven more dates between the Moselle, the Rhine and the Palatinate.
Two hundred thousand people, one single weekend.
Bernkastel-Kues opens its biggest event of the year this weekend. From September 3 through September 7, 2026, the Weinfest der Mittelmosel takes centre stage across the region. Fireworks light up the Moselle on Saturday evening, September 5, closing the first day. The parade winds through the historic old town on Sunday, September 6, 2026. Seven more festivals fill the rest of the weekend, from Koblenz to Speyer.
The Weinfest der Mittelmosel in Bernkastel-Kues
No other festival between Trier and Koblenz draws as many visitors as the Weinfest der Mittelmosel in Bernkastel-Kues. Around 200,000 people gather over the five festival days, from Thursday, September 3, through Monday, September 7, 2026. That makes it the largest wine festival on the entire Middle Moselle, well ahead of every neighbouring town along the river.
The historic old town around the market square and the Moselle riverside turns into one long festival ground for the duration of the event.
Winegrowing families from across the region pour their wines at stalls along the riverside promenade. The grand Sunday parade ranks among the best-attended moments of the whole weekend, and Saturday evening's fireworks close the first festival day over the river.
Bernkastel and Kues, linked by a bridge across the Moselle, carry the festival together. Music, wine tastings and the grand parade draw visitors from across the state every year. The festival has held this late-summer date for decades and marks, for many winegrowing families along the Middle Moselle, the turn into autumn.
What else is on this weekend
At the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz, the VR-Kaiserfestival brings four nights of German pop and schlager acts to an open-air stage facing the Ehrenbreitstein fortress. Andernach turns its historic old town into one giant stage on Saturday for the Andernach Night of Culture, with music, theatre and art running until midnight. Trier opens five museums until midnight for the Trier Museum Night, from the Rhineland Museum to the Karl Marx House. Further down the Moselle, the town of Mehring holds its own winegrowers' festival the same weekend, billed as the oldest wine festival on the Middle Moselle, though far smaller than the one in Bernkastel-Kues.
In Bitburg, three formats run side by side the same weekend: the Gäßestrepperfest, alongside the Bitburg car festival and Bitburg Classic, fills the town centre and a 100,000-square-metre showground with a parade, vintage cars and live music. On the town hall square in Frankenthal, more than 40 farmers and craftspeople set up stalls for the farmers' and craft market, from winegrowers to cheesemakers.
At the Deutscher Sandsteinpark in Alsenz, vintage cars, classic motorcycles and historic bicycles gather for the Stein trifft Classic meeting. The Strecktal skatepark in Pirmasens hosts a scooter contest and workshops for beginners and advanced riders alike at Sk8 Date. In the Speyer town hall, the Rohvolution gathers raw-food, superfood, fermentation and vital-food equipment exhibitors from across the German-speaking world.