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Thousands flock to Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, setting new attendance record

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2025 September 7 . 12:09 PM

2 min read

High turnout for Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival sets new attendance record

Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival reports highest attendance in its history - Thousands flock to Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, setting new attendance record

Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Breaks Attendance Record

The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, held annually in Germany, concluded this weekend with a record-breaking attendance of 203,000 visitors. This marks the first time the festival has surpassed the 200,000 visitor mark.

This year, the music metropolis of Istanbul was in the spotlight at the festival, with performances by Kurdish singer Aynur, Kolektif Istanbul, and the Israeli-Turkish folk band Light in Babylon. The festival director, Christian Kuhnt, stated that the festival summer showed how powerful music is in connecting people across all borders.

The program for this year's festival ranged from classical music to hip-hop, jazz, soul, and world music. Over the past eight weeks, the festival had 203 concerts, with an occupancy rate of 92 percent, slightly lower than last year's 95 percent. The lower occupancy is attributed to some venues having significantly more seats this year.

The final concerts, which took place at the Lübeck Music and Congress Hall, were a sold-out affair. Giuseppe Verdi's "Messa da Requiem" was on the program for the final concerts, with the Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say performing.

The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, founded in 1985, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. The festival's spokesperson announced the record attendance, with many of the over 60 concerts within the Istanbul focus becoming parties where people danced and celebrated late into the night.

Looking ahead, the 41st Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is set to begin on July 4, 2026. The city and artist in the spotlight for the upcoming festival have not yet been announced. Fazil Say was the portrait artist for this year's festival and is set to perform at the last two concerts of the festival in Lübeck over the weekend.