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Castle Fes­ti­val Heidelberg

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What is the Hei­del­ber­ger Castle Festival?

The Heidelberg Castle ruin is not only so world-famous because of the exten­sive gar­dens, parks, dreamy nooks and cran­nies, which are remi­nis­cent of the ear­lier times of the Renais­sance, and a popu­lar place for tou­rists from all over the world.

In addi­tion to the castle light­ing, which takes place three times a year, the so-called Heidelberg Castle Fes­ti­val is also held every summer. The Heidelberg Castle, pro­vi­des the per­fect atmo­sphere for the most famous and most visi­ted open-air thea­ter games in the north of Baden-Württemberg.

…a cul­tu­ral flag­ship of the first rank for the city and the region.
Ger­hard Stratthaus

(2001, former finance minis­ter Baden-Württemberg)

When does it take place?

Every summer the Heidelberg Castle Fes­ti­val takes place and offers the per­fect back­drop for all kinds of music, play and dance in the old castle ruins. The season of the popu­lar event usually starts in mid-June and ends on the begin­ning of August, more detailed infor­ma­tion can be found on the web­site of the city thea­ter.

Where does it take place?

Every summer, well-known and lesser-known plays are per­for­med out­doors in the cour­ty­ard of Heidelberg Castle, but the large ruin offers other venues for magi­cal per­for­man­ces aswell. For exam­ple, the thick tower or the so-called Eng­lish buil­ding are a popu­lar stage for many events.

The address of the event venue is: Heidelberg Castle 1, 69117 Heidelberg and can be rea­ched by cal­ling 6577-16 or +49 6221 5384-31.

More infor­ma­tion can also be found on the castle’s web­site.

Here to the website

Who is the organizer?

The Heidelberg Castle Fes­ti­val is orga­ni­zed by the Thea­ter und Orches­ter Heidelberg.

In 1926, the Heidelberg Castle Fes­ti­val was laun­ched with a pro­duc­tion of the well-known play A Mid­sum­mer Night’s Dream by the famous Eng­lish play­w­right and poet Wil­liam Shake­speare in the castle courtyard.

While in the past, and espe­ci­ally in the pre-war period, guest per­for­man­ces were also inte­gra­ted, the cur­rent manage­ment places a lot of empha­sis on the in-house pro­duc­tion of the Heidelberg Muni­ci­pal Thea­ter. Howe­ver, they made an excep­tion in the summer of 2022.

The Thea­ter and Orches­ter Heidelberg held a bene­fit mati­nee for the vic­tims of the war in Ukraine and coll­ec­ted around 44,000 euros. Not only did they show their deepest com­pas­sion and social affec­tion, the manage­ment of the Castle Fes­ti­val chan­ged the pro­gram in favor of the Ukrai­nian artists who had fled and gave them the oppor­tu­nity to pre­sent their own pro­duc­tions and concerts.

I am so proud of the col­le­agues and artists here at Heidelberg Thea­ter. Wit­hout hesi­ta­tion, they have put their own inte­rests aside. We all feel a deep need to help our Ukrai­nian col­le­agues. What we can con­tri­bute is per­for­mance and work oppor­tu­ni­ties, and that’s what we’re doing here now at this year’s Heidelberg Castle Festival.
Holger Schultze

(Thea­ter and Orches­tra Direc­tor Heidelberg)

What is in the program?

The Castle Plays pro­gram is sui­ta­ble for young and old and pres­ents a wide variety of con­certs, films, plays and songs, all of which tell a story. This year, the play Shake­speare in Love, based on the script by Marc Norman and Tom Stop­pard, was one of the most popu­lar performances.

The pro­gram can be found on the Heidelberg Thea­ter web­site or by cli­cking here.

Here to the program

Heidelberg Bergbahn

How much does the fun cost?

Start­ing at 16 euros, anyone can grab a ticket for the popu­lar open-air thea­ter at Thea­ter Heidelberg on the web­site, on-site at Thea­ter­straße 10, 69117 Heidelberg, or by phone at 06221 5820000.

Buy tickets here

One advan­tage of the event tickets is that they are valid on the day of the per­for­mance,4 hours before the start, as a trans­port ticket in the VRN area (in the Rhine-Neckar trans­port net­work) on all buses, street­cars and regio­nal trains four hours before the per­for­mance begins.

The tickets also make it pos­si­ble to ride the moun­tain rail­road up to the castle, which is an expe­ri­ence in itself. As a tou­rist, it is vir­tually obli­ga­tory to ride the moun­tain rail­road at least once.

Here you can find more infor­ma­tion about the moun­tain railroad.