3 Tage Marburg

Central Hesse's Largest City Festival

"3 Tage Marburg" – known in the Marburg scene as 3TM – is the largest city festival in Central Hesse and one of the most important summer events in Hesse overall. The organizer is Marbuch-Verlag GmbH, the publisher of the Marburg magazine "Marburger Magazin Express". The event has been held on the second weekend of July since the 1980s and has developed into a cultural brand event for the university city.

Seven Stages, Forty Bands, a Thousand Artists

The dimensions are impressive: around 1,000 musicians, acrobats, dancers, and athletes spread across 7 stages, over 40 bands, groups, and solo artists. The venues are the Schlosspark high above the city, the half-timbered alleys of the Oberstadt around the market square, and the Lahnufer with its stages. The genre spectrum is deliberately broad: rock, pop, jazz, classical, world music, sports, and entertainment – a program that appeals to all generations.

The INNEXIS Dragon Boat Race

The sporting centerpiece and visual highlight is the INNEXIS Dragon Boat Race 2026 on the Lahn. Up to 64 teams, each with 20 paddlers and a drummer, compete against each other in heats and finals. The race traditionally takes place on Saturday afternoon and attracts tens of thousands of spectators to the Lahnufer. The teams come from all over Central Hesse – corporate teams, student groups, sports clubs, even political teams. It is a typical phenomenon of a university city where playful sporting events and urban culture merge.

The Oberstadt as a Theater Backdrop

Marburg's Oberstadt with its half-timbered ensemble around the Elisabethkirche, the Schloss, and the Marktplatz is one of Hesse's most beautiful old town backdrops. During 3TM, it becomes a stage: bands play under half-timbered eaves, acrobats perform their skills in historic squares, food trucks and catering stands are spread along the narrow alleys. The staging of the urban space is part of the program and distinguishes 3TM from many other large city festivals.

University City as Context

Marburg, with its approximately 75,000 inhabitants, is one of Hesse's most important university cities. Philipps University, founded in 1527 and thus one of the oldest Protestant universities in the world, shapes the cityscape to this day. With almost 25,000 students, the city is young, culturally active, and politically aware. The 3TM city festival is one of the formats in which this energy is concentrated and visibly released – several tens of thousands of visitors per festival weekend are standard.

From Student Festival to Cultural Brand

What distinguishes 3TM from many city festivals of similar size is its cultural depth: alongside pop and cover bands, there are classical concerts in the Elisabethkirche, world music in the Schlosspark, jazz in the Oberstadt, and street artistry at the market square. The program is curated with great care by Marbuch-Verlag, so that 3TM is not a loud Volksfest, but an urban cultural format. This program depth also makes the city festival interesting for audiences who would normally prefer to go to the theater.