Bodensee Festival

Bodensee Festival — Festival around Lake Constance

The Bodensee Festival is one of the most important classical festivals in Southern Germany and at the same time a cross-border cultural project around Lake Constance. Since 1989, the festival has taken place annually in May at venues in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland — a bridge between three nations, allowing the Lake Constance region to be experienced as a common cultural space. In 2026, the 38th edition runs from May 2nd to 25th with the motto "In Motion".

More than 60 events in 20 cities

The festival is multilocal: over 60 events are spread across around 20 cities in the Lake Constance region — Friedrichshafen (main venue and festival office location), Konstanz, Meersburg, Lindau, Ravensburg, Überlingen, Stockach, Tettnang, Bregenz, Dornbirn, St. Gallen, Romanshorn, Kreuzlingen, and many more. Venues include concert halls (Graf-Zeppelin-Haus, Konzilstadt Konstanz, Festspielhaus Bregenz), churches, castles, monasteries, and industrial buildings — a cultural diversity rarely seen in the Lake Constance region.

2026 Theme: "In Motion"

The festival theme "In Motion" provides a programmatic link: music in motion, movement of musicians and audience between countries, the movement of early Romantic music, improvisation, and dance. Across genres: Classical music, Jazz, Dance, Theater, and Literature — the festival is programmatically multidisciplinary.

Opening May 2nd with Nicolas Altstaedt and Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

The opening concert takes place on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026, at the Graf-Zeppelin-Haus Friedrichshafen. Nicolas Altstaedt — the Franco-German cellist, artistic director of the Lockenhaus Festival, and soloist with leading orchestras worldwide — performs works by Joseph Haydn, Luigi Boccherini, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Altstaedt is the 2026 Artist in Residence of the festival — an honor previously awarded to Vilde Frang, Kit Armstrong, and Antoine Tamestit, among others.

Kebyart — Ensemble in Residence from Spain

The Ensemble in Residence for the Bodensee Festival 2026 is the Spanish saxophone quartet Kebyart, founded in 2014, which pushes musical boundaries — from Rameau to Mozart and Bach to Leonard Cohen. Kebyart will perform several concerts at various venues in 2026 — program highlight: the concert on May 5th with a program "From Rameau to Cohen".

Multilocal Festival Structure

The Bodensee Festival is both a festival and a travel platform: visitors travel from concert to concert, to different venues, by ship (Bodensee-Schifffahrt), train, or car — discovering the Lake Constance region in all its cultural diversity. A festival pass and thematic tours make attending multiple concerts attractive. Full program overview and tickets at bodenseefestival.de.