When Lake Constance transforms into a stage in May, when music carries across the water, dance lights up historic halls, and literature finds its place between the lakeside promenade and baroque churches, it's time for the Lake Constance Festival. From May 2 to 25, 2026, the cross-border festival, with the motto "In Motion," invites visitors on a cultural journey through the four-country region of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

Since 1989, the Lake Constance Festival has been one of the region's most important cultural events. Each year, it focuses on a new theme, and in 2026, movement will be the artistic theme: physical dynamics, social change, and the transition between tradition and the present. More than 60 events unfold a program that combines music, theater, dance, and literature in ever-changing constellations. The venues range from classical concert halls and museums to magnificent castles, monasteries, and churches—places that tell their own stories and lend the festival its unmistakable atmosphere. It is not uncommon for the lake itself to become a stage.

Nicolas Altstaedt © Marco Borggreve

One of the musical highlights is the festival opener with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and a program featuring Haydn, Boccherini, and Mozart. The residency concerts by cellist Nicolas Altstaedt also make a strong impression—for example, in the intimate "Scordatura" series or in the dialogue of strings with Barnabás Kelemen.
The Kebyart Saxophone Quartet opens up a completely different sound cosmos, breaking with classical forms and translating rhythmic energy into the present with projects such as "Tanz-Kaleidoskop," "Firebird," and "Sounds of Peace." The interplay with large ensembles in the symphonic evenings "Watermusic" and "wOrtlos" is particularly impressive.
The popular hiking concerts and nature music experiences, where sound and landscape meet directly, show that movement can also be taken literally. Here, the audience itself becomes part of the festival experience—on the move between riverside paths, courtyards, and vantage points.

Dance and theater also feature prominently in the program: contemporary productions such as "Into It" and the play "TOXIC. Britney über Spears" are on the bill, as is the New English Ballet Theatre with a top-class triple bill. Literary highlights include readings and the Literature Ship, which combines literature and the Lake Constance landscape in a unique way.
The Lake Constance Festival 2026 invites you to be moved—by music and ideas, by new perspectives and encounters. It is a festival that transcends boundaries and shows how vibrant culture can be when it unfolds across countries, languages, and shores.
May 2 to 25, 2026
www.bodenseefestival.de