ExtraSchicht — Night of Industrial Culture Recklinghausen

One Night — 40 Venues — 18 Cities

On Saturday, June 27, 2026, the 24th ExtraSchicht will take place — the "Night of Industrial Culture", with which the Ruhr area has celebrated its industrial heritage identity annually since 2001. 40 venues are spread across 18 cities, from late afternoon until well into the night — conveyor systems, steelworks, coking plants, breweries, transformer stations, harbor cranes, theaters, and museums will be filled with concerts, performances, light, and sound installations.

Recklinghausen: 2 Venues for the ExtraSchicht

In Recklinghausen, two venues will be active in 2026:

1. Hochlarmark Training Mine — "Participate instead of just watching"

The Hochlarmark Training Mine is a former miner training facility that now functions as an experience museum. At ExtraSchicht 2026, the venue offers mining experience tours with the motto "Participate instead of just watching": visitors go underground, experience the conveyor system, support structures, and the atmosphere in which generations of Ruhr area miners worked. A venue that makes the social history of the region directly tangible.

2. Umspannwerk Recklinghausen / Museum Strom und Leben

The second Recklinghausen venue is the Umspannwerk (transformer station) with the Museum Strom und Leben (Electricity and Life Museum) of the Westphalian Industrial Museum housed within it. Program 2026 includes:

• High-voltage demonstrations — Tesla coils, arcs, spark effects under guidance
• Neon glass blowing demonstrations — craft demonstrations of historical lighting technology
• Guided tours through the electrical system
• Musical accompaniment

The Ruhr Area as a Connected Stage

What makes the ExtraSchicht so special: The 40 venues are connected into a dense night choreography. With a single ticket, you can theoretically wander from venue to venue, using shuttle buses, S-Bahn connections, and sometimes boat services on the Ruhr area canals. The ExtraSchicht doesn't play out in a single festival, but transforms an entire region into a connected experience space.

New Additions 2026

For the 24th edition, 4 new venues are on the program for the first time:

• Galerie RUTTKOWSKI;68 in Bochum
• Campus Duisburg of the University of Duisburg-Essen
• Heilig-Kreuz Church in Gelsenkirchen
• Theater Oberhausen

In addition, there are 7 returning venues, including Zechenbahnhof Mooskamp Dortmund and Maschinenhalle Zweckel Gladbeck.

Tickets and Travel

Earlybird Tickets (March 17–May 18): €15. Advance Sale (May 19–June 26): €22, reduced €17. Box Office: €25. The ticket is valid for ALL 40 venues AND public transport in the entire Ruhr area on this evening — this makes the ExtraSchicht extremely mobile-friendly.

An Industrial Culture Invention

The ExtraSchicht was launched in 2001 when the Ruhr area consciously wanted to make its industrial heritage identity a tourist and cultural asset. Today, the format is considered one of the most important industrial culture events in Europe — a model that has since been imitated elsewhere (Saarland, Saxony).