Festivals and Events in Leipzig: Bach, Goths and a Lake Full of Rock

Leipzig has been a trade fair city for centuries, a music city since Bach, and since 1989 a city that knows what a crowd on the street can do. That mixture produces an events calendar unlike anywhere else in Germany: a Baroque music festival and one of the world's largest gothic gatherings, in the same city, sometimes weeks apart.

Dates move slightly each year, so check the current programme, but the shape of the year is reliable.

Johann Sebastian Bach was cantor at the Thomaskirche from 1723 until his death in 1750, and he is buried there. The Bachfest fills the city with performances of his music each June, in the churches he actually worked in, by the Thomanerchor, the Gewandhausorchester and ensembles from around the world.

Even outside the festival, the boys' choir sings regular services and motets at the Thomaskirche. If you cannot make June, that is the next best thing and it costs almost nothing.

For four days around Pentecost, Leipzig becomes the world capital of dark music. The Wave-Gotik-Treffen spreads across dozens of venues in the city, from concert halls to churches to parks, and thousands of visitors dressed in black, Victorian costume and elaborate makeup take over the trams and cafés.

What makes it worth seeing even if the music is not for you is how the city handles it: without irony, without fuss, and with locals treating the whole thing as a normal part of the calendar. Book accommodation far ahead if your visit falls on those days, whether you are attending or not.

The Highfield Festival is Leipzig's big summer rock and indie weekend, and it takes place on the shore of the Störmthaler See south of the city. That lake did not exist a generation ago: it is a flooded open-cast lignite mine, one of many in the Neuseenland, the "new lake district" created as the mining ended.

Camping is part of the format. Bring what you need for a field, because the site is a long way from a shop.

In early summer the Gewandhausorchester plays open-air concerts in the Rosental park, free to attend. People bring blankets, food and wine and settle in on the grass. It is one of the most generous things a major orchestra does anywhere, and it is the easiest introduction to Leipzig's musical life if you are only here for a weekend.

The Leipziger Jazztage in autumn bring international and experimental jazz into clubs and halls across the city, and it leans more towards the adventurous end than the standards.

In March the Leipzig Book Fair takes over the exhibition grounds. Unlike the Frankfurt fair, which is largely a trade event, Leipzig is aimed at readers, and the attached manga and comic convention fills the trams with costumed teenagers for a weekend.

This is the one to know about. On 9 October 1989, after peace prayers at the Nikolaikirche, tens of thousands of people walked the Leipzig ring road in a demonstration that the state did not break up, and the movement that followed brought down the GDR within weeks.

Every year on that date the city marks it with the Lichtfest, light installations and projections along the ring. It is not a party. It is a city remembering the evening it changed its own history, and it is the most moving thing on this list.

Beyond the calendar, walk the ring, look into the Nikolaikirche, sit in Auerbachs Keller where Goethe set a scene of Faust, and take a tram out to the Spinnerei, a vast former cotton mill in Plagwitz now full of galleries and studios. A city game is a good way to link the centre together, because Leipzig's history is written on buildings that look ordinary until someone points at them.

If you want the city as well as the line-up, walk it with a playing route. Here is how it works, and for team outings and larger groups we have formats on this page. Questions about dates, group sizes or routes? Get in touch. Just over an hour away: Dresden.