SHMF Werftsommer Lübeck

From Industrial Yard to Summer Living Room

The SHMF Werftsommer transforms the Kulturwerft Gollan in Lübeck into an unusual concert stage for about two weeks. Where ships were built until just a few years ago, today there are deck chairs, sand, and vintage furniture — a "summer living room" by the water where you can linger before and after the concerts. The shipyard halls with their raw industrial patina provide acoustics and an atmosphere that no classical concert hall can replicate.

World Music as a Common Thread

Programmatically, the Werftsommer is the world music focus in the grand array of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (SHMF). Unlike the classical SHMF concerts in churches, castles, and riding halls, here you seek the bridge between cultures: West African kora tradition meets blues and Afropop, Nordic folk sessions open up to improvisational baroque, Anatolian string instruments encounter Western soundscapes, Brazilian-Afro-Lusophone rhythms tell stories of migration — and finally, the Munich Jazzrausch Bigband mixes big band jazz with techno and dancefloor.

Lübeck and the SHMF

The Hanseatic city of Lübeck in the district-free city of Lübeck (Schleswig-Holstein) has been a central venue for the SHMF for decades. The festival itself was founded in 1986 and is one of the largest classical festivals in Europe, with concerts in around 100 venues across the state. For several years now, the Kulturwerft Gollan has complemented this tradition with a modern, cosmopolitan venue that appeals to a younger, more urban audience.

Atmosphere and Sustainability

The Werftsommer focuses on a relaxed atmosphere: no stiff concert format, but a picnic character between performances, regional vegetarian gastronomy, reusable cups, and free shuttle buses to the venue. The mix of international music, industrial setting, and North German summer light has established itself in recent seasons as one of the most distinctive SHMF venues.