Weiden Summer Serenades

Concerts in the City Park Since 1953

The Weiden Summer Serenades are among the oldest open-air concert series in Eastern Bavaria. They were launched in 1953 with the opening of Max Reger Park and have taken place every summer since. The venue is the green pavilion in the city park, named after the composer Max Reger (1873–1916), who was born in Weiden. Blankets on the lawn, deck chairs, families with picnic baskets – the scene has remained the same over the decades.

Fixed Weekly Rhythm, Free Admission

Around twenty concerts are spread over eight weeks according to a fixed rhythm:

• Wednesday, 7:00 PM
• Sunday, 4:00 PM

Admission is free. Those who wish to support the event can purchase a "Weidener Kulturherz" (Weiden Culture Heart) for €3 – a symbolic contribution to promoting the city's cultural work.

Stylistic Diversity

The range of the Summer Serenades is deliberately broad – something for every audience:

• Salon music from the 1920s–1940s (Opening concert traditionally with Kaisers Salonorchester)
• Rock’n’Roll, Pop, Swing
• Latin and Funk
• Country (Mountaineros are regular performers)
• Schlager music from the post-war economic boom years
• Hip-Hop and Soul (DJ Dollar Bill, among others)
• Italian Classics and Dolce Vita (Pino Barone, I dolci Signori)
• Folk Music (D’Woihauser Straßenmusikanten, Wirtshauseck Musi, Kirwaleit Weiherhammer, Die Ponader Boum)
• Sing-along concerts (e.g., with Gwasch – from The Beatles to Britney Spears to System of a Down)

Organizers: City and Downtown Initiative

The serenades are jointly supported by the City of Weiden (Event Management) and the downtown initiative Wir sind Weiden (We are Weiden). They are part of the city's cultural work and complement the city's cultural offerings – such as the Max Reger Days festival, which is dedicated to the composer every few years.

Weiden in der Oberpfalz

Weiden in der Oberpfalz is an independent city in northeastern Bavaria, in the Upper Palatinate administrative region. With around 42,000 inhabitants, it is the economic and cultural center of the northern Upper Palatinate, located between the Fichtelgebirge and the Upper Palatinate Forest. The city is on the Nuremberg–Prague railway line and is easily accessible via the A93 motorway. Max Reger Park, where the concerts take place, is near the old town and, with its mature trees, provides an ideal acoustic setting for open-air music.