Vinyl On Demand Festival Friedrichshafen

VOD Fest — three days of underground avant-garde in Friedrichshafen

There are festivals in Germany that get played on mainstream radio — and then there is the Vinyl On Demand Festival. From July 17th to 19th, 2026, the international underground scene will gather at the Kulturhaus Caserne in Friedrichshafen: 21 artists and groups from the fields of Industrial, Power Electronics, Experimental Music, Dark Ambient, Noise, and electronic avant-garde. It is one of the most important European festivals for a music scene that exists far beyond any charts or streaming hits, anchoring its history in the underground currents of the 1970s to 1990s.

VOD Records — the background

Behind the festival is the label VOD Records (Vinyl On Demand) — a legendary institution in the underground scene. VOD Records specializes in reissuing forgotten or out-of-print industrial, power electronics, and experimental recordings from the 1970s to 1990s on vinyl — often in elaborate box sets with historical documents. The label has thus fulfilled an important archival function for a scene that would otherwise have fallen into digital oblivion. The festival is the annual physical gathering of this scene — and at the same time, living proof that this music is not historical but continues to exist and be produced.

Headliners and Lineup Highlights

The 2026 lineup brings together international heavyweights of the underground scene:

• Sutcliffe No More — British industrial project continuing as a solo project by Kevin Tomkins after the end of Sutcliffe Jugend (1982–2018)
• Esplendor Geometrico — Spanish industrial/electronic pioneer project, founded in 1980, one of Europe's most influential power electronics acts
• Hunting Lodge — American industrial project from the early 1980s
• Crash Course in Science — Philadelphia synth-pop/minimal-wave classics
• Joachim Irmler (Faust) — founding member of the German Krautrock legend Faust
• Lydia Lunch — New York no-wave icon, singer, spoken-word artist, long-time underground activist
• Rapoon — British dark ambient/ethno project, founded from Zoviet France
• Das Synthetische Mischgewebe — German experimental project with a long tradition

A total of 21 acts on two stages — Inside Stage (indoor concert hall) and Outside Stage — offer three days of concentrated programming from Friday evening until Sunday midnight.

Kulturhaus Caserne — historic venue

The Kulturhaus Caserne in Friedrichshafen is a socio-cultural center with a long tradition. Housed in the former rooms of a barracks, the venue offers several concert halls, outdoor areas, and accommodation options. Its selection as the VOD Festival venue underscores the event's underground character — not a sterile concert area, but a grown cultural space.

Friedrichshafen — Zeppelin City on Lake Constance

Friedrichshafen, a city of around 62,000 inhabitants in the Bodenseekreis district, is located on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) and is the headquarters of Zeppelin (today Zeppelin GmbH, airship factory) and MTU Friedrichshafen (engines). Worth seeing are the Zeppelin Museum (the world's largest on airship history) and the harbor with its promenade on Lake Constance. In summer, Friedrichshafen is a starting point for Lake Constance boat tours, stages of the Lake Constance Cycle Path, and excursions to Konstanz or the Austrian and Swiss shores. The VOD Festival offers a contrasting pole to the otherwise rather tourist-oriented city identity.