Germany

Germany’s busiest month for food festivals in this guide is September. Munich’s Oktoberfest opens in the second half of the month on the Theresienwiese, and a week earlier the spa town of Bad Dürkheim, in the Palatinate wine country, opens its Wurstmarkt, a wine fair despite the name. Both are free to enter, both last more than a week, and both draw hundreds of thousands of visitors, so the practical rule for Germany is simple: fix your dates, then book the bed.

Earlier in the summer, Kulmbach, a brewing town in Upper Franconia, holds its Bierwoche at the turn of July and August, and Mainz fills its Stadtpark with the Mainzer Weinmarkt over the last weekend of August and the first of September. In Stuttgart, the Stuttgarter Weindorf turns the squares of the old centre into a wine festival in late summer: from 20 August to 5 September in 2026. In Berlin, Street Food Thursday turns Markthalle Neun, in Kreuzberg, into a street food market every Thursday evening.

Two more wine festivals fall in the late summer: the Rheingau Wine Week in Wiesbaden (13 to 22 August 2027) and the Freyburger Winzerfest in the Saale-Unstrut, always on the second weekend of September according to the Freyburg tourist office (2027 dates not yet published).

Germany’s Volksfeste, its big folk fairs, are beer festivals as much as funfairs. In spring, Munich holds its Frühlingsfest on the Theresienwiese, and Erlangen, in Franconia, opens its Bergkirchweih on the Thursday before Pentecost: from 13 to 24 May in 2027. In August, Straubing, in Lower Bavaria, holds the Gäubodenvolksfest, and from late September Stuttgart fills the Cannstatter Wasen for its Volksfest: from 24 September to 10 October in 2027.

Beyond the festivals, two experiences are worth a detour. On the Mosel, estate tastings cost 7 to 25 euros per person. In Berlin, guided food tours cost 69 to 89.99 euros per adult and last two to three and a half hours.

The country’s food traditions are regional rather than national. Bavaria is beer country, and Munich’s brewing rules go back to a local purity law of 1487. The Palatinate, on the western bank of the Upper Rhine, is one of the country’s largest wine regions, and its festivals pour local wine by the Schoppen, in quarter-litre or half-litre glasses, rather than by the tasting measure.

Getting around

The festival towns in this guide are all on the rail network. Munich recommends the U-Bahn and S-Bahn for Oktoberfest, Bad Dürkheim adds extra trains, trams and late buses during its fair, and the Kulmbach beer festival’s grounds are an 8 to 10 minute walk from the station, according to its organiser.