Overview
- The Stadtfest opened Friday with a ceremonial start on the Neumarkt by Mayor Dirk Hilbert and runs through Sunday across Altstadt and Neustadt riverbanks.
- Organisers expect about 600,000 visitors to the multi-venue event that uses stages at Neumarkt, Theaterplatz, Goldener Reiter, Terrassenufer and Schloßstraße.
- A mix of headline acts and newcomers are on the Canaletto programme, including Ensemble Carte Blanche, Koffi Missah, ESKEI83 and Eva Briegel with Juli, with most stages free to enter.
- Side attractions such as a medieval market with nightly fire shows, a Blaulichtmeile emergency-services mile, a street-art zone, food stalls and a Händler market are drawing families and shoppers.
- The festival is an annual city fixture that normally attracts roughly half a million people and this year the combination of free programming and extreme heat could add pressure to public transport, medical services and vendors.