Bezirksfest Ost Gelsenkirchen

Five District Festivals in Five Allotment Garden Complexes

Gelsenkirchen is divided into five city districts — Mitte, Nord, Ost, and Süd, and West — and for years, each district has celebrated its own festival in an allotment garden complex (KGV). These five parallel festivals are a civic format of the City of Gelsenkirchen: accessible, free of charge, in a family-friendly environment. The Bezirksfest Ost will take place in 2026 at the KGV Gartenfreunde Resse on Ahornstraße in the Resse district — one of the greener districts in the north of the Ost district.

IGA 2027 as a Common Thread

In 2027, Gelsenkirchen, together with the entire Ruhr region, will host the International Garden Exhibition (IGA) — one of Europe's largest garden exhibitions. The Bezirksfest Ost 2026 is part of the preparatory phase and explicitly incorporates the IGA theme: stands from the forest school (environmental education), energy advisors, nature conservation initiatives, and local sports clubs convey the ecological claim of the IGA in a concrete, accessible format.

Family Program with a Nature Focus

The children's program has a clear focus: nature, gardens, environmental education. There will be hands-on stations for planting, identifying local animals and birds, and small workshops for building insect hotels. Sports clubs will offer taster sessions, and the allotment garden complex itself will be part of the program — those interested can stroll through the plots between the bouncy castle and the stage and see how Gelsenkirchen citizens tend their own gardens.

Resse and the Ost District

Resse is the northern district in the Ost district, nestled between the Rhine-Herne Canal, the Emscher Park Cycle Path, and larger green corridors. The KGV Gartenfreunde Resse allotment garden complex is one of the largest in the city — accordingly, it has space for a festival of this size. Other districts of the Ost district — Erle, Bismarck, Schalke-Nord — are easily accessible; the district festival thus attracts guests from all over the district.

District Festival as Democratic Culture

District festivals are a typical format for German major city administration: they are events organized by the respective district councils, financed by municipal funds, and usually with political participation. In Gelsenkirchen, the tradition is well-established — the five parallel festivals make the concept a cross-district brand. They are not tourism events, but citizen events intended to strengthen the identity of each district.