As Europe’s largest club festival and an international platform for pop culture, we transform Hamburg’s Reeperbahn into a hub for the international music scene once a year. Together with artists and audiences, we aim to discover new talent, create special moments and broaden our musical horizons.

From 16 to 19 September 2026, Reeperbahn Festival took place under the overarching theme “Forever Legit?”. With this year’s motto, we invited you to take a holistic look at the music industry and its transformation – and to question the structures that shape it. We want to listen to young voices, open up spaces and enable meaningful participation.

At the heart of this is the idea of solidarity: for the next generation of artists, for fans, for the music ecosystem as a whole – and, last but not least, for democracy. That is why Reeperbahn Festival is deliberately opening up to a broader audience: in the freely accessible Festival Village and at other public venues, visitors can experience music and culture without a festival ticket.

public venues, visitors can experience music and culture without a festival ticket.

Our work is guided by diversity, sustainability and gender equality. We are a founding member of the Keychange initiative and are committed to achieving a 50/50 gender balance at festivals and within music organisations worldwide.

The Reeperbahn Festival Conference is the central industry gathering of the music business as part of Reeperbahn Festival – Europe’s largest platform for pop culture and the music industry. Since 2006, we have been bringing together music professionals from around the world each year to spark new ideas and drive conversations around music, business and society.

With around 190 programme sessions, the Conference offers a diverse mix of networking formats and practical sessions. It is aimed at professionals from all areas of the international music industry – from recorded music, live entertainment and publishing to media, technology, public administration and politics.

The Conference is complemented by Reeperbahn Festival itself: with around 500 concerts across more than 70 venues, supporting emerging artists is at the heart of the festival. The curated Arts & Word programme adds more than 20 events, including readings, live podcasts, talks, guided tours, performances and exhibitions that explore social issues through artistic perspectives.

With this year’s motto, “Forever Legit?”, we invited you to take a holistic look at the music industry and its transformation – and to question the structures that shape it. We listened to young voices, open up spaces and enable meaningful participation. Is everything we do still legitimate? That is the question we asked with this year’s edition.

Our goal is to strengthen exchange within the industry, share knowledge and foster sustainable, future-oriented networks. Diversity, equality and sustainability are at the heart of our work. Every year, around 5,000 music professionals from up to 50 countries become part of the Reeperbahn Festival Conference.

Through our international activities at key industry events around the world, we exchange ideas with international partners and highlight the relevance of the German and European music industries. Our colleagues attend industry events worldwide, including creative industry gatherings such as South by Southwest and festivals such as Eurosonic Noorderslag. International delegations of music industry professionals also travel around the globe on behalf of Reeperbahn Festival, discovering new musical territories and building networks across music, business and society.

In this way, we contribute to long-term and sustainable economic, cultural and social developments while acting as a bridge between the European and global music industries.

Explore the Delegates Database