Jan Delay at the Reeperbahn Festival 2026: The programme highlights

AUDIO: Hamburg: Reeperbahn Festival starts (1 min)

Reeperbahn Festival 2026: information and programme highlights

As of: 16.09.2026 00:00

The Hamburg Reeperbahn Festival, which starts today, is Europe's largest club festival. Over 400 acts perform, representing the music of tomorrow. Jan Delay gives a free concert on the Heiligengeistfeld. NDR.de presents further highlights of the festival.

Hamburg-St. Pauli will once again be the international meeting place for pop music for four days. The Reeperbahn Festival has a lot of music, art and pop culture on offer until Saturday. Around 45,000 visitors are expected, plus around 6,000 specialist guests from the music industry.

It is played in around 70 clubs and venues around the Reeperbahn - with around 425 acts from 44 countries. The audience can look forward to Anna von Hausswolff, Fat Dog, Dream Wife or Antje Schomaker, for example. And for a special kick-off: Hamburg's newcomer Bella Reed prevailed at the open call and will open the festival in the afternoon in the freely accessible Festival Village. In addition, Jan Delay will be giving a free concert on the Heiligengeistfeld tomorrow.

Under the motto "Forever Legit?" in 2026, the programme is intended to give young voices more space and enable real participation. In addition, the organisers want to focus on solidarity and democracy by allowing access to some public venues without a ticket.

Reeperbahn Festival 2026: When the neighbourhood becomes a stage

From 16 to 19 September, newcomers and well-known acts will once again be putting the microphone in their hands at Europe's largest club festival in Hamburg.

Line-up 2026: Editors' recommendations

Our "music gold seekers" Johanna Schmidt and Mischa Kreiskott listened to each other through the entire line-up beforehand. Here are their recommendations.

Faravaz - September 16, 9pm, 25 Club

Since the late 1970s, it has been a criminal offence for women in Iran to sing in public. But that didn't stop the musician Faravaz, who was born in 1990 in Tehran, from doing just that. She started playing the guitar at the age of twelve. Later followed piano, harmonica and Ney-Anban, a bagpipe-like instrument used in southern Iran.

Faravaz Farvardin presents her music underground: digitally on the video platform YouTube, which is actually blocked in Iran, and analogously at underground parties. When the BBC became aware of Faravaz and played her music, it fundamentally changed their lives. Because now the Iranian regime is also getting wind of it. This is followed by raids against musicians. Faravaz is arrested and goes to trial. Fortunately, the musician is in Berlin for a concert during the conviction and decides to stay there and apply for asylum in Germany.

Here she has now built up a new existence - as a musician, educator and activist. Her debut album "Azadi" (Freedom), released in 2025, is a musical manifesto: eleven tracks that were created in collaboration with British producer Charlie McClean and tell of exile, resistance and the right to have their own voice. Songs such as "Mullah", "Enemy of God" or "Dessert" received international attention. The motto of freedom is also reflected here in terms of sound. Genre boundaries do not matter, and so Faravaz's music is a mix of trap, Persian folk and pop, which will also be found on her new EP "Saffron". It will be released on 17 September, one day after its appearance at the Reeperbahn Festival. There you can experience them live at 25 Club on Wednesday at 9 pm.

James Emmanuel - September 17, 7pm, St. Paul's Church

Basically, James Emmanuel's musical career began in a church. However, not in the St. Pauli Church, where he performs on Thursday at 7 pm, but in a church in Nigeria. There, his father, a priest in the local parish, enrolled him in the church choir, unwittingly laying the foundation for a career that began years later in Edinburgh, a few thousand kilometres away.

James Emmanuel moved here after his father died when he was just 16 years old. To make ends meet, he first worked as a cleaner in a sports bar, singing during his shifts to the delight of his colleagues and guests. This was followed by regular performances in a karaoke bar and, a short time later, a permanent place in the programme of a jazz bar. With the money saved, Emmanuel recorded his first demo in 2023. The track "Lonesome Man" earned him not only many enthusiastic listeners, but also the long-awaited record deal. And thus also the prerequisite for finally being able to publish his debut. "Time To Heal" says it was released last year and with its powerful soul it is just as healing as the title promises. The same applies to his live shows - whether in small clubs or at large festivals, but in particular in a church.

Conference (Panel) - September 17, 2pm, east Hotel/Ginger

In addition to a diverse concert program, the Reeperbahn Festival offers trade visitors the opportunity to further their education at workshops, panel discussions and discussion rounds with the so-called "Conference". There are about 200 of these program items this year, because there is a lot to discuss in the music industry - for example, remuneration for streaming services, generative AI or accessibility. The latter topic is covered by the panel "Not considered = not in the lineup. Why disability should not be a career obstacle”. Although not implemented in all clubs, there has been a realization for some years that venues should be barrier-free for visitors. However, an even greater problem arises for musicians who need barrier-free stages in order to perform at all.

For this purpose, Felix Brückner (singer), Johanna Krins (musician and author for audio description) and Katja Lucker from the "Mus" initiative exchange ideas. The panel will be moderated by DJ, producer and booker Paula Hilton.

Chinese American Bear - September 18, 8:35 pm, Mojo

The weather forecast for the coming days is rather mixed. If you still want to recharge your batteries with a little summer lightness, the Chinese American Bear concert on Friday at 8:35 pm at the Mojo is recommended for you.

The duo from Seattle have been making bilingual indie pop in English and Mandarin since 2019 and are also on the road as a duo or married couple away from music. What started as a loose quarantine project to teach husband Bryce Barsten Mandarin has evolved into a band that has since released several albums and EPs, captivating an ever-growing fan base. It can be found not only in the USA, but also in China, the birthplace of singer and keyboardist Lingbo Anne Tong.

The lyrics of the duo are about everyday things: food, family or even life as a Chinese-American couple. For example, on the album "Dim Sum & Then Some", released in 2026, the track "Dim Sum (点心)" can be found, which praises Chinese snacks as a remedy for grief and world pain. "Dim sum makes it all right / Dim sum makes me all right / Dim sum makes you all right" it says. And with that: Bon appétit and merry dancing!

Bleach TV - September 19, 2:05 pm, Molotov

If you are looking for exciting bands from Hamburg, Bleach TV will appear on the map quite quickly. No wonder, then, that they too find their place in the Reeperbahn Festival line-up.

They have their self-titled debut EP, which was only released in March and whose five songs can be located somewhere between introspective post-punk and grungy indie. Of course, the whole thing has been released in true style not on vinyl, but on cassette and on the one hand makes you want to see everything that may come, but on the other hand also the live performance. It will be exciting to see how the band brings their music to the stage and whether you stay in the calmer waters of the released tracks or tickle out a bit more post-punk.

On record - or even on tape - Bleach TV, despite only being a band for one year, definitely sound like a grown band that you will hear even more from.

Dream Wife - September 18, 7.50 pm, Docks /September 20, 0.20 am, Molotov

In addition to a lot of promising newcomers, there are also established acts at the Reeperbahn Festival. This year, this is the case with the English-Icelandic band Dream Wife, among others. The three musicians made their first appearance at the festival nine years ago - back then with just a handful of tracks released and a year before the release of their self-titled debut album.

Originally, Rakel Mjöll (vocals), Alice Go (guitar, vocals) and Bella Podpadec (bass, vocals) founded Dream Wife in 2014 as a performance art project at Brighton University, which they attended together. The first songs were created in this context; in 2016, the decision was made to be a band. Whether as an art project in 2014 or today as a band, the themes that are dealt with in the music of Dream Wife - feminism, queerness and patriarchal structures - have remained the same.

Madra Salach - 17 September, 10.30 pm, Uebel & Dangerous

The fact that the music of grandparents or great-grandparents is becoming effective again for the young generation of pop has already been seen at various newcomer and showcase festivals in recent years. Now a band comes from Dublin and brings their fresh derivative of Irish folk to Hamburg's Reeperbahn Festival: fabulous! The Bordun continuous whirring of the chest organ, acoustic guitar, Irish flutes, mandolin and the breathtakingly intense and rugged vocal sound of frontman Paul Banks. This is reminiscent of the good old Dubliners, The Pogues or the virtuoso US folks of Nickel Creek or the Punch Brothers.

Madra Salach (Gaelic for "dirty dogs") does not manage this musical heritage like a local museum - Dubliners escalate, continue to write, reinterpret. The pubs of Dublin have long conquered the six Irish. It's high time to jump on the European continent!

Kazdoura - 17 September, 8.40 pm, Nochtspeicher / 18 September, 6.30 pm, UWE

In the darkness of the current conflicts, we like to forget the glamour of the pop and dance music traditions of the Arab world. It is drowned out by "music bans" by Islamists and extremists. Syrian singer Leen Hamo fled the nightmare of Aleppo to Toronto, Canada, in the 2014 civil war. Here she met the Lebanese jazz musician John Abou Chacra. Together, the two develop a vision of Arab music as it could be in a free world: radio rhythms, discoglossa, highly virtuosic jazz phrasing and this breathtakingly weightless intonation of the "Maquam", the Arab quarter-tone conductors that Leen Hamo brings to the stage. "Kazdoura" means "to go for a walk" in Arabic - that's what these two do! Through Arab disco, soul, psychodelic, trip hop and the utopia of a free world.

Fruity aftertaste - 16 September, 5.30 pm, Festival Village / 17 September, 8.50 pm, landscape

There is a lot to be said about the presence of our societies. However, the current pop scene has remained surprisingly quiet in recent years. That seems to change with this Reeperbahn Festival year: It's back, the political song! An example is the band "Fruity aftertaste". The three people from Munich assemble poetic agitation texts on sparkling jazz arrangements. Another wonderful example of the positive impact of German music college jazz graduates on the music of our time. When Milena calls on Hehl in her chansons to get the fire extinguisher, which might still save something if we were not all on the line, that is great text art. When these lyrics are arranged in such a good mood and virtuoso way, the joy becomes infinite!

WRKHOUSE - 17 September, 5 pm, Spielbude XL

The squeaky-clean jazz pop that Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers or Toto once made big has been back for several years. The Jonas Brothers, Charlie Puth or the German band Zimmer90 are fascinated by the perfectionist bombastic of this overblown late 70s and early 80s - by this genre that was once called "yacht rock".

The young Welshmen of WRKHOUSE have also probably found these old cult albums in the record cabinets of their grandparents or somewhere on the net. Her version of this music would remain with quotation and tumult if it were not extended by this desire for sound experimentation and by the Welsh language. How beautiful it sounds when this form of Celtic blows through large guitar and synthesizer reverberations!

Haller - 18 September, 7 pm, Festival Village

That's amazing! The Rhineland Haller designed the great internationally successful summer hit of 2026 "Good Enough" from Kitsch Warfare and Flower Garden as early as 2018 with his folded-voiced "You're Beautiful Enough!". Martin Haller from Aachen negotiates the big issues of the time, for example how to cope on the social media stage, which does not allow for rest in the backstage, or how to deal with the information fire of our present, all of them in his songs. Although this has a therapeutic effect, it is musically and lyrically virtuoso and sophisticated. He finds himself between Kummer, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean.

Sūn Bird - September 18, 5:30 pm, Festival Village

When Amy Winehouse, D’Angelo or The Roots coined the term "neo-soul" in the early 00s, these musicians were just born or not yet: Sūn Bird from Oslo are the Norwegian soul band of the moment. Whether "Neo" or "Retro" seems completely secondary here. Instead, you celebrate the energy of this music from early Motown to Raphael Saadiq or Sharon Jones.

The perfectly trained Norwegian jazz musicians are now captivating audiences all over the world. Johan Helland's head voice seems hypnotic, the pulsating band drives its beats into the audience's legs and sometimes takes the good old Philadelphia strings of the 70s out of the repertoire box. Great soul art!

Reeperbahn Festival 2026: When the neighbourhood becomes a stage

From 16 to 19 September, newcomers and well-known acts will once again be putting the microphone in their hands at Europe's largest club festival in Hamburg.

Reeperbahn Festival: Weimer demands more participation from Hamburg

The planned cuts to the Reeperbahn Festival are met with criticism in the Hanseatic city. Minister of State Weimer wants a "fair distribution" of funding.

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