At a glance
Opening hours
17 October to 4 November 2025
German Jazz Prize 2024 for Festival of the Year?
Sounds like NUREMBERG!
The NUEJAZZ Festival in Nuremberg counts as one of the most innovative jazz festivals in Germany and was awarded with the German Jazz Prize 2024 as “Festival of the Year”. With a courageous and cross-genre program, it brings national and international stars and exciting newcomers to the stage each year. With its creative and high-quality program design and the support of young talent, the NUEJAZZ Festival sets impulses for the jazz scene in Germany and beyond.
The Story: “We Are Sexier Than a Normal Jazz Festival”
Since its founding in 2013, the NUEJAZZ Festival has established itself at one of the most exciting and successful points of contact for modern jazz. Each year it brings a mix of international newcomers on the stage and widens the borders of the genre. Nuremberg, known for its long jazz tradition – the Jazz Studio Nuremberg is one of the oldest and most respected jazz addresses in Germany – had no festival of this type before NUEJAZZ. NUEJAZZ fills this gap and gives the city a platform for innovative jazz, which often integrates electronic sounds, hip-hop beats and creative experiments. The festival was brought to life by Frank Wuppinger and Marco Kühnl, who organize it until today. Locations like the Kulturwerkstatt auf AEG, the Z-Bau – which Wuppinger describes as “modern opera” – and the E-Werk contribute their industrial charm to the festival’s unique atmosphere.
The Music: Modern & Cross Genre
The NUEJAZZ Festival stands for a one-of-a-kind musical journey. Jazz is not just a fixed style for the festival, but a lively, always developing and changing music form, which overcomes cultural and social borders and is the basis of many other music styles. Fed from blues and the pain of slavery, jazz is, above all, full of stories, which also speak of injustice and marginalization. Therefore it requires not only musicians who have mastered their skills, but those who also have a deeper story to tell. “We want to elucidate, represent, pull people along and give the artists a voice and a place to do so”, as the vision behind the festival.
NUEJAZZ fans say:
Prof. Dr. Max Ackermann: “For me, this is one of the nicest festival that I have visited in my life. Especially because it is imbued with design. One notices how much love is hidden in the details.”
Prof. Rainer Kotzian: “When you look at the audience, you immediately recognize the diversity there. Young to old to middle and from everywhere. What I find particularly impressive – and what in the end is also a new field of experimentation and learning – is the variety of the program. There’s something for every age here.”
Maike, aged 34: “Here, modern jazz meets electronic beats and creative experimentation. It’s always exciting to experience something new.”
Festivallocations
Festival-Highlights Nürnberg
st. katharina open air
A summer concert in the ruins of St. Catharine’s Church is an unforgettable experience. The Gothic window frames and walls create a stunning backdrop, in which music blends in harmony with the architecture to create a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. Musicians from a wide variety of genres and countries, from newcomers to established bands, give their best here and make this multifaceted concert series a real highlight in the Nuremberg festival calendar.
Musicfest ION
The Musicfest ION is Nuremberg’s most surprising music festival – with a multitude of creativity, professionalism and passion, the festival planners stage a diverse and high-caliber program in Nuremberg’s churches each year. The atmosphere which holds sway in the sacred medieval structures – when music greats like Wolfgang Niedecken or The King's Singers present their songs – is one-of-a-kind and inspires every attendee. A shiver of sensation is guaranteed!
Classic Open Air
The Classic Open Air in Nuremberg counts as one of the largest open air concerts of classic music in Europe. Each year, the Nuremberg State Philharmonic and the Nuremberg Symphony perform in the Luitpoldhain Park and transform it into a concert hall under open skies in a relaxed picnic atmosphere. The family concert, which has taken place since 2013, is also very popular. It features musical hands-on experiences by which children can playfully discover classical music.
Bardentreffen
When Nuremberg transforms into a city of world music on a weekend in the summer, then it’s Bardentreffen time! It is one of the largest free-of-charge music festivals in Germany and draws more than 200,000 visitors from near and far each year. Eight music stages with almost 90 concerts as well as hundreds of street musicians in the lanes give the Nuremberg Old Town an absolute open air festival feeling: Anyone who experiences it, comes again and again!
Nuremberg Pop
The Nuremberg Pop Festival is southern Germany’s largest club and showcase festival and draws music fans every year to Nuremberg. In addition to performances from national and international artists from the genres indie, rap, pop, electro and punk, the festival offers a platform for exchange for creative artists, those interested in culture and politicians with its Pop Conference. Since 2021, the Pop Cultural Prize GUNDA is awarded to young talent and dedicated personalities.