Kultursommer im Spitalgarten Schwandorf

Open-Air Culture in the Spitalgarten

The Kultursommer im Spitalgarten is one of the most beautiful open-air concert series in the Oberpfalz region. The venue is the Spitalgarten – a historic courtyard in Schwandorf's old town between the town hall and the Spitalkirche, a place with plane trees, urban patina, and extraordinary acoustics. In the summer weeks, concerts are held on the open-air stage in this courtyard, ranging from cabaret song forms, chamber music acoustics, and world music danceability.

Biennial Rhythm

The festival runs on a biennial rhythm – after 2022 and 2024, the next edition is in 2026. In the intervening summers, the city's cultural office offers other events in the Spitalgarten (open-air cinema, smaller concerts), but the actual festival takes place every two years.

Program Line

The curatorial line of the Schwandorf Cultural Office is consistent: no mainstream pop music, but artists with their own unique style – Bavarian music cabaret (Mathias Kellner, Bavarian Cabaret Award 2018), chanson and songwriter tradition (Die Nowak), world music (Yeni Tori y Afroson), and similar acts. This selection is designed for an adult audience looking for a concert format in the Spitalgarten that is more sophisticated than Schwandorf's civic festivals but more accessible than the formal city hall.

Spitalkirche and Schwandorf

The Spitalkirche is one of the oldest sacred buildings in the city – its history dates back to the High Middle Ages; it served as the house of worship for the medieval civic hospital. Next to it is the historic town hall; the courtyard where the concerts take place opens up in front of both. Schwandorf, with just under 30,000 inhabitants, is a Große Kreisstadt (major district town) in the Landkreis Schwandorf (district of Schwandorf), located in the Oberpfalz region halfway between Regensburg and Weiden – a dense regional cultural offering in which the Kultursommer plays a special role.