Intercultural Week Mainz 2026

The Intercultural Week is the largest nationwide series of events promoting encounter and understanding between people with and without a migration background. Initiated in 1975 by the churches and since then supported by a broad alliance of municipalities, migrant organizations, religious communities, welfare associations, and civil society initiatives, it takes place every year at the end of September in over 500 German cities and towns. In Mainz, the Intercultural Week is traditionally coordinated by the city's Office for Migration and Integration and the Advisory Board for Migration and Integration, and is organized in close cooperation with numerous migrant organizations, religious communities, and initiatives.

The Mainz edition in 2026 — the 51st — runs from September 11 to September 20, 2026, and includes a dense program of events across the entire city. Workshops in schools and daycare centers, readings by authors from Mainz and around the world, film screenings in cinemas or cultural centers, concerts featuring musical traditions from all over the world, interfaith encounters between Christians, Muslims, Jews, Alevis, Buddhists, and non-denominational people, discussion evenings on migration, flight, integration, and racism, neighborhood festivals in Mombach, Neustadt, Lerchenberg, and other districts — the range is wide and reflects the diversity of Mainz's urban society.

The highlight is the Intercultural Festival on Domplatz, which takes place on Sunday, September 13, 2026. On the central square in front of Mainz Cathedral, migrant organizations, associations, religious communities, and initiatives present themselves with information stands, dance performances, music, and culinary offerings from over fifty nations. Traditional costumes, languages, and soundscapes from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and many other regions meet in the heart of Mainz's old town. With a stage program, a children's area, and free admission, the festival is one of the most colorful and lively Sunday events in the Mainz calendar.

The Intercultural Week Mainz sees itself not only as a festival week but as a conscious statement: for an open, diverse city society, against racism and exclusion, for encounter and joint creation. With its 51st anniversary in 2026, Mainz reaffirms its claim as a cosmopolitan state capital with a lived tradition of integration.