MS Dockville

Festival on the Reiherstieg

Since 2007, MS Dockville has transformed a strip of harbour land in Wilhelmsburg into its own world in mid-August. Between shipyard cranes, warehouses, and the Reiherstieg canal, a festival site emerges that is unlike any other: industrial, raw, artistic, by the water. "It will be loud, weird, and beautiful," promises the team — and that's exactly what it has been for almost two decades.

Music and Art at Eye Level

On ten stages, Indie Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, Electronic music, and genres in between alternate. International headliners stand alongside German-speaking scene artists and young Hamburg acts. What makes MS Dockville special: the parallel art exhibition. Over 150 programme items with installations, performances, workshops, and readings extend across the entire site — art here is not a side programme, but on equal footing with music.

Wilhelmsburg: Hamburg's Southern District

Wilhelmsburg is Hamburg's largest district and lies between the Norderelbe and Süderelbe. The Reiherstieg is a harbour arm where shipyards, houseboats, and industry mix. MS Dockville has given this neighbourhood its own cultural identity — and the art installation Dockville Open Air is accessible even outside of festival weeks.

Its Own Virtues

The festival cultivates a series of its own rituals: the raft in the middle of the canal as a stage and symbol, the club zone with electronic music until morning, the artistic-conceptual framework that follows a new guiding theme each year. The organiser is the Hamburg-based agency Kopf & Steine GmbH, which also hosts the smaller sister festival Vogelball.