This September, Hamburg’s St. Pauli district once again becomes Europe’s epicenter of musical discovery. From September 17–20, 2025, the Reeperbahn Festival celebrates its 20th edition, marking two decades as the continent’s largest club festival and one of the most significant gatherings for the international music community.
A Festival of First Encounters
Reeperbahn has always been about finding what comes next. Across roughly 65 venues, from basement clubs to the Elbphilharmonie’s sweeping stage, more than 400 artists from 30 countries will perform around 450 shows. It’s a rare chance to stumble into a tiny room and see a band on the cusp of their breakthrough-before they’ve made their way onto bigger stages.
The Spirit of “Togetherness”
This year’s theme, “Imagine Togetherness!”, underlines the festival’s role as more than just a marathon of gigs. Reeperbahn is leaning into questions of solidarity, responsibility, and collaboration-both within the music industry and in the culture it reflects. Continuing its partnership with Keychange, the festival maintains a 50% gender balance in its lineup, reinforcing its stance as a progressive force in the live circuit.
Beyond the Music
What sets Reeperbahn apart is the breadth of its programming. Alongside the concerts, the schedule includes art installations, readings, film screenings, political talks, and award ceremonies. Around 5,000 industry professionals from across the globe will attend, making it as much a professional summit as it is a celebration for the 45,000 expected visitors.
Reeperbahn doubles as one of Europe’s most important industry summits, hosting a sprawling conference program that draws over 5,000 delegates from across the global music and creative sectors. Panels, keynotes, and workshops dive into everything from streaming economies to AI in music, artist rights, sustainability, and the politics of cultural exchange. It’s part trade fair, part think tank-a place where managers, labels, and policymakers mingle with artists, sparking conversations that often ripple far beyond Hamburg.
An Open Invitation
Accessibility remains central. The Festival Village on the Heiligengeistfeld and several public stages offer free entry, drawing in curious locals and passersby. It’s a reminder that while Reeperbahn has become a key event for labels, managers, and agents, it’s still rooted in the city and open to anyone who wants to experience it.
Two Decades In
Now at its 20-year milestone, Reeperbahn continues to set itself apart in a crowded festival calendar. It’s not about blockbuster headliners-it’s about discovery, diversity, and dialogue. For anyone passionate about uncovering new voices and experiencing the energy of music in its raw, unpolished form, Hamburg in September remains the place to be.
Must-See Acts: Established Voices & Rising Stars
Reeperbahn’s vast lineup includes names generating true buzz:
Here’s the list with the bold artist names transformed into clean, headline-style headings, followed by their descriptions:
Dry Cleaning
With Florence Shaw’s deadpan spoken-word delivery cutting across wiry post-punk guitars, Dry Cleaning turn everyday banality into strangely addictive mantras.
Blondshell
Brutally candid and melodic, Blondshell’s indie rock unpacks messy emotion with a clarity that hits harder than distortion ever could.
MØ
Still straddling pop maximalism and electro-punk grit, MØ brings festival-ready choruses that are as unruly as they are euphoric.
Twin Tribes
The Texas duo channel coldwave melancholy and occult synth textures, crafting the kind of darkwave anthems that feel both ritualistic and cathartic.
Alice Phoebe Lou
Her otherworldly voice drifts between folk intimacy and cosmic indie psychedelia, always hovering just slightly outside gravity’s pull.
Bosshoss
Their outlaw-country-meets-rock swagger might sound improbable in theory, but live it’s pure beer-spilled abandon.
Anna Ternheim
Stark and crystalline, her songs balance Nordic melancholy with singer-songwriter intimacy, hitting with quiet precision.
Francois and The Atlas Mountains
French indie pop at its most fluid: tender melodies wrapped in subtle electronics and an almost painterly sense of texture.
Bikini Beach
With lo-fi fuzz and garage-rock abandon, this German outfit sound like they’d rather play from a basement than a boardroom—and that’s the charm.
Yukimi
Stepping out from Little Dragon, she sculpts minimalist art-pop that trades in restraint, groove, and emotional precision.
Ebbb
A collective weaving experimental electronics with hypnotic vocals, Ebbb make club music that feels ceremonial rather than disposable.
Easy Easy
Jangly riffs and new-wave inflections collide with bilingual vocals, making Easy Easy one of the most refreshingly off-kilter indie prospects in Germany.
BÆNCH
Denmark’s latest post-punk export thrives on intensity, channeling raw riffs and driving bass into catharsis that feels both immediate and unpolished.
NewDad
Brooding yet melodic, Galway’s NewDad marry shoegaze haze with alt-rock sincerity, conjuring emotional storms that linger long after the chorus.
She’s in Parties
Named after a Bauhaus classic, this UK band take dream-pop shimmer and lace it with a post-punk bite sharp enough to draw blood.
Teenage Dads
Melbourne’s indie oddballs funnel playful hooks and restless energy into jittery guitar pop that never stops fidgeting.
Mary In The Junkyard
Their songs unravel like diary entries set to noisy alt-rock crescendos, fragile one moment and feral the next.
Soeckers
Nodding to Britpop swagger while rooted in German indie traditions, Soeckers deliver melodic rock with a disarming sense of familiarity.
lovehead
Vienna’s trio bottle youthful urgency into wiry, lo-fi indie anthems that sound equal parts spontaneous and heartbreakingly deliberate.
