Bamberger Sandkerwa

Kirchweih in the Baroque Sandviertel

The Bamberger Sandkerwa takes place every year at the end of August in the historic Sandviertel — one of the oldest and most beautiful districts of Bamberg's World Heritage old town. The venue is the Sandstraße with its baroque and Renaissance facades, complemented by Markusplatz and the Am Kranen area on the Regnitz river. The organizer is Bamberger Sandkerwa Veranstaltungs GmbH, which emerged from the Bürgerverein 4. Distrikt e.V. (founded in 1891), which organized the first Sand-Elisabeth-Kirchweih in 1951.

Fischerstechen on the Regnitz

The spectacular highlight is the traditional Fischerstechen — a water sport competition where participants in wooden boats on the Regnitz river, against the backdrop of Klein Venedig, try to push each other into the water with long poles. Thousands of onlookers line the bridges and banks — during large crowds, the surrounding ramparts become grandstands. The competition has been held in Bamberg for generations and is a rare sport practiced in only a few other places in Germany.

Franconian Delicacies and Beer Culture

Bamberg is a beer city par excellence — the city has nine active breweries, more per capita than any other major German city. At the Sandkerwa, Bamberg breweries (Schlenkerla with its famous Rauchbier, Kaiserdom, Mahrs, Klosterbräu, and others) serve their specialties at stalls along Sandstraße. Accompanying this are traditional Franconian dishes: Schäufele, Bratwurst, carp, Zwiebelplootz, Kloß, and Krautsalat. Live music on several stages — from brass bands to party bands — creates the atmosphere.

Bamberg — UNESCO World Heritage

Bamberg, with just under 80,000 inhabitants, is the capital of the Upper Franconia administrative region in the state of Bavaria, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993. The medieval old town with its cathedral, Alte Hofhaltung, Neue Residenz, Klein Venedig, and countless baroque townhouses forms an extraordinary setting for a folk festival of this size. The close integration of the festival grounds with the established urban structure — Sandkerwa visitors move through real historic streets, not a separate fairground — makes the atmosphere unique.