29–31Oct
Festival
Weimarer Rendez-vous mit der Geschichte
29–31 October 2026
A weekend at the end of October, every year
A history festival on democracy and migration, held in the city whose name became a shorthand for a republic that failed.
FestivalEvery year
Achava Festspiele
Three weeks of concerts, readings and public argument built around interreligious and intercultural dialogue.
Late September into October, every year
22 Sep– 11 Oct
In 8 days
22 September – 11 October 2026
About Achava Festspiele
Three weeks of concerts and public discussion built around interreligious and intercultural dialogue — the most explicitly political of Weimar's autumn festivals, and the least interested in being decorative.
The name is the brief
Achava is the Hebrew word for brotherhood, and the festival treats it as a working instruction rather than a sentiment: the programme is organised around what different religious and cultural communities can actually say to one another, in concerts and in discussion, over three weeks.
Why Thuringia is not an incidental address
The festival runs across the state with Weimar among its centres. This is a region that holds both the classical inheritance and, on the hill above this town, Buchenwald — and a dialogue festival staged here has to carry both of those at once. That is a heavier brief than most festivals set themselves.
Dates
- 22 September – 11 October 2026
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27 Aug– 12 Sep
Festival
Kunstfest Weimar
27 August – 12 September 2027
Late August into early September
Central Germany's largest festival of contemporary arts, closing the city's summer at the turn from August into September.
11–13Sep
FestivalFree
Genius Loci Weimar
Next date to be announced
Three nights in September
Three September nights in which artists project onto the city's historic facades — free, outdoors, and gone by morning.
Where
Multiple venues in Weimar and across Thuringia.
Tickets
Ticketing varies by event; see the festival's own programme.
Facts checked against the organiser on 29 August 2026
Places and people
Historic sites
Buchenwald MemorialMemorial
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar
The camp above the city is the reason a dialogue festival staged in Thuringia carries the weight it does.