Lorscher Kerb with Tobacco Festival

Lorsch – Monastery Town and Tobacco Community

Lorsch is a small but culturally and historically significant town on the Bergstraße, located between Heidelberg and Darmstadt. Lorsch Abbey, with its gatehouse from the Carolingian era, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1991. Less known is that Lorsch was one of the most important tobacco-growing regions in Germany for centuries. In the 18th and 19th centuries, tobacco cultivation shaped the city's economy – traces of this past can still be found in old warehouses today.

Kerb and Tobacco Harvest Festival

The Lorscher Kerb with Tobacco Festival is the contemporary tribute to this dual identity. The Kerb (a regional term for Kirchweih) is the traditional autumn festival celebrating the end of the harvest season; the Tobacco Harvest Festival commemorates the tobacco farmers who annually held their own festival in the city center after the last harvest. Both traditions have been merged into a three-day city festival, held annually on the third weekend of September.

Program and Stages

At the heart of Lorsch's city center are the catering stands: a beer village with Hessian beer and a wine village with wines from the Bergstraße region, which flow seamlessly into each other. Live stages with local music, children's ice cream stands, traditional snack stalls, and the carousel races (a playful competition on the carousels that shapes the family atmosphere) make up the festival program.

Embedded in the Festival Calendar Year

The Kerb with Tobacco Festival is one of four major city festivals in Lorsch (alongside the Spring Market with Bee and Poet Festival in May, the St. John's Festival in June, and the Christmas Market 'The Blue Christmas Miracle' at the end of November). These four dates structure the festival year in the UNESCO World Heritage city.

Lorsch's World Heritage Status

Lorsch combines its annual folk festival with pride in its UNESCO World Heritage status. Lorsch Abbey, founded in 764, was one of the most important abbeys of the Carolingian Empire and, with its gatehouse, is considered one of the most outstanding examples of Carolingian architecture. The Kerb with Tobacco Festival connects this deep history with the vibrant urban society of the 21st century.