It's hard to believe that we’ve now been living with state emergency measures for almost one-and-a-half years. And the longing for some form of normality and proper contact is steadily growing – including for us, too! As things stand today though, we can say: The Reeperbahn Festival 2021 is happening! With the vaccination campaign forging ahead, an abundance of testing options as well as low rates of cases, we are confident we can bring the 16th Reeperbahn Festival to the stages of St Pauli from 22 to 25 September 2021.

So we are working closely with the responsible authorities to put on our diverse musical event for you, featuring newcomers as well as established acts, in compliance with the regulations that will apply in September and ensuring the safety of visitors, partners, performing artists and staff at all times during the Festival. Alterations and changes to the programme and location arrangements made necessary by the ongoing pandemic are possible and even likely. We will of course keep you updated with more detailed information over the next couple of months.

Music line-up

We are thrilled to already present you with an extensive programme taking place at around 35 venues, including three open-air stages: the ARTE Concert Stage in the Festival Village on the Heiligengeistfeld, the Spielbude and the N-JOY Reeperbus at Spielbudenplatz. And the programme is set to get bigger over the coming weeks:

The concert highlights for the 2021 Festival so far include rapper Mavi Phoenix (AT), Goldroger (DE), indie-electronic artists Weval II (NL), pop act ILIRA (CH), songwriters Antje Schomaker (DE) and William Fitzsimmons (US), retro-rock institution Kadavar (DE) as well as indie-pop bands like JEREMIAS (DE) and Die Höchste Eisenbahn (DE). A rundown of all the live acts confirmed so far is here for you.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has forced Tash Sultana to postpone her planned world tour until 2022, so unfortunately her performance at the Reeperbahn Festival 2021 has had to be cancelled.

The Elbphilharmonie is hosting five concerts this year. Now playing on the Friday instead of Mine and Anna Calvi are RY X (AU) and the ANCHOR award-winners of 2020 ÄTNA x NDR Bigband (DE), while appearing at the same venue on Saturday are Alice Phoebe Lou (ZA), Niklas Paschburg (DE) and, again, RY X (AU). You can find details on admission to this year's concerts in the Elbphilharmonie here.

In addition, the Reeperbahn Festival Opening on Wednesday, 22 September, is back live at the Stage Operettenhaus and will feature top-class live acts, keynote addresses and talks on industry-relevant and socio-political topics in the company of prominent guests from the worlds of culture and politics. On Festival Saturday, 25 September, at the St. Pauli Theatre, the jury led by President Tony Visconti (US) will select the winner of the ANCHOR - Reeperbahn Festival International Music Award.

The Festival Village as well as selected cinemas and reading venues invite you also to our diverse Arts, Film and Word Programme.

Music Industry Professional Programme

Back at last: For all the music industry delegates, the Reeperbahn Festival Conference Programme is back at the venues in and around the Reeperbahn. It is ready to help make up for lost time in terms of interacting, networking and talking business, live and on location with approximately 100 sessions with 300 speakers as well as numerous partner events offering access to networking sessions, meetings or showcases. More details on the programme are available here.

For all Festival visitors unable to attend in person, our Conference Programme will be available as a digital live stream and an on-demand service. In addition, the digital platform enables all delegates to interact virtually using the numerous chat, meeting and networking options.

Digital Festival Experience

Even though we’re physically back in St. Pauli again, our public Reeperbahn Festival streaming platform will again contain exciting coverage via a live stream or a video-on-demand option. This includes performances of premieres, the ANCHOR Nominee and Wunderkinder – German Music Talent concerts as well as the ARTE Concert Stage recordings and much more.

We’re so looking forward to seeing you all again!

Stay safe and see you soon!
Your Reeperbahn Festival Team