Takeover — The Young Festival

Takeover — when the Festspielhaus becomes young

The Takeover Festival is the remarkable attempt by the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden — Germany's largest opera and concert hall — to open its stage and program for ten days to a young audience and young artists. From January 30 to February 8, 2026, the Festspielhaus will become the stage for a generation that usually avoids classical concert halls: techno ballet meets pop-up choir, soul concert meets DJ set, classical pianism meets electronic improvisation.

2026 Program — The Highlights

The festival spans two weekends with a packed program in between:

• Friday, January 30, 2026, 6 PM — Opening at Pierre-Boulez-Platz with 'Takeover Voices' — the open-air opening in front of the Festspielhaus
• Opening Evening — Pop-up choir and Techno Ballet: The Berliner Ballett dances to electronic music, a deliberate programmatic provocation for the classical bastion
• Concerts with Christian Löffler (electronic sound sculptures, one of the most important young German electro composers)
• Cara Rose and Brandee Younger — Jazz vocalists and harpists
• Sunday, February 8, 2026 — Closing Concert with Martin Kohlstedt: the Weimar-based pianist and composer, whose blend of classical improvisation and electronic multi-channel sound captivates a young audience

Twenty Workshops — The Real Core

In addition to the concerts, the festival includes around twenty workshops — dance, composition, voice, ensemble playing, performance — explicitly aimed at young adults and teenagers. This is where the festival is most intense: participants work with the professional artists who will later perform on stage, developing their own performances. Several workshops culminate in presentations on the final weekend.

Brunch Concerts and Dance Programming

A special feature of the festival is the Sunday brunch concerts — relaxed, intimate performances in the morning, often with food and in smaller rooms of the Festspielhaus. On the other side of the program are the dance-electro evenings with DJ sets that transform the grand foyer into a club.

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden — The Extraordinary Venue

The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is Europe's second-largest opera and concert hall (after Milan's La Scala). It has 2,500 seats in the Grand Hall, housed in a converted train station building at Pierre-Boulez-Platz, in the heart of Baden-Baden. During the classical Festspielhaus year, the world's greatest orchestras and soloists perform here — Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Anna Netrebko, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma. Takeover is the programmatic counter-movement: classical music opens up to subculture, the highbrow bastion lets techno, soul, and electronic improvisation in for ten days.

Baden-Baden — Spa Town and Stage Town

Baden-Baden is the glamorous spa town on the edge of the Northern Black Forest, with fewer than 60,000 inhabitants, but boasting the Festspielhaus, theater, casino, museums, and an hour of concerts daily in the concert hall. In January/February — when the season has passed its first peak — Takeover brings a different energy to the city, especially to the Festspielhaus quarter near the station.