On September 5 and 6, 2026, events and festivals pile up across Schleswig-Holstein: the Fehmarn Open Air marks Jimi Hendrix's final performance with over 25,000 guests, Halstenbek holds its Schützenfest, Uetersen opens its wine festival.
Late summer brings the big stages back.
The beach at Strukkamp on Fehmarn opens on September 5, 2026 for the free rock festival. There, the Fehmarn Open Air recalls Jimi Hendrix's final performance, just days before his death, at the 1970 Love & Peace Festival. Halstenbek holds its Schützenfest, Uetersen its wine mile, Timmendorfer Strand its Stars am Strand: Schleswig-Holstein packs several major dates into the weekend of 5–6 September.
The Fehmarn Open Air, Between Rock and Memory
The beach at Strukkamp on the Baltic island of Fehmarn becomes a stage on 5 September 2026 for the Fehmarn Open Air. The large, free rock festival draws classic rock and tribute acts to the sand.
The festival's story reaches back to 1970. The same beach once hosted the legendary Love & Peace Festival. It is remembered above all for a single performance. Jimi Hendrix played there, just days before he died. It was his very last show.
Today's Fehmarn Open Air carries that legacy forward. More than 25,000 visitors now come to the island every September, for a programme of classic rock and tribute acts on the beach at Strukkamp.
Admission stays free, as tradition has dictated for decades. For Fehmarn, the date counts among the fixed points of the late-summer calendar, on the same day as the Fehmarn Marathon on the island.
The Rest of the Weekend
On the Baltic island of Fehmarn, the Fehmarn Marathon runs the same day over five distances along the coast, from the mini run through the twelve-kilometre loop around Burgtiefe to the full marathon. On the waters of the Flensburg Fjord, the Flensburger Fördewoche has ranked since the early 20th century among the Baltic's leading sailing regattas, with around 180 yachts and more than 1,000 sailors racing across several classes, from the long-standing Lyö Rund to the J/24 class German Open. From land, the spectacle can be followed from the waterfront promenade, passenger boats or escort vessels. In Norderstedt, the 19th edition of the Norderstedt Triathlon combines swimming, cycling and running around the Stadtparksee at the same time, with Stadtwerke Norderstedt Gruppe as main sponsor.
On the Baltic beach of Timmendorfer Strand, Stars am Strand marks its tenth anniversary with two weekends of concerts in the district of Ostholstein. Robin Schulz, Jan Delay, Andrea Berg and Die Prinzen number among the names on the stage by the sea. At Gut Basthorst, the British Flair with Country Fair stages an open-air Proms concert with the Hamburg Festival Orchestra on Saturday evening, framed by Highland Games, bagpipes and Scottish and Irish dancing.
In Halstenbek, the Halstenbek Volks- und Schützenfest has run for over fifty years, with fairground rides, a festival tent, a shooting range, brass bands and a lantern parade through the district of Pinneberg, crowned on Saturday by the election of the Schützenkönig. Uetersen fills its Wassermühlenstraße for the Uetersen wine festival, more than thirty years old, with winemakers and wine merchants from Germany and abroad, under the tall lime trees between the town hall and the rose garden, from Riesling from the Palatinate to Mediterranean specialities.
On Föhr, Föhr erLesen weaves literature into island life: readings in thatched-roof cottages, bus readings across the island, live podcasts and Wadden Sea walks with poets follow one another over ten days. In the Kurpark of Eckernförde, around 30 artists transform the paths between the flowerbeds into an open-air gallery for the Art and Culture Festival, with sculpture, painting, glass art, ceramics and photography.