Eccentric - Beyond conventional trade fairs
The extravagant obscene event in Karlsruhe is the meeting place for fans of kink, BDSM and fetish here in the south of Germany. An exciting community experience awaits the numerous visitors. With captivating performances on stage or to discover for yourself, evening parties and events for dancing or sensual experiences, as well as a variety of around 30 workshops that offer space to deepen your own knowledge and explore new horizons. 
Boudoir Noir will be present with a 40 square metre booth, offering the right clothing for darkly passionate occasions.

The E-Tropolis Festival 2025 will take place on Saturday, 22 March 2025 in the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen. The line-up has been finalised and includes every band that will provide plenty of dance motivation and muscle twitching. If you want to bring your dance moves to the people again and like electronic sounds, you should get your tickets quickly.

If you want to escape Germany's most bizarre law - the ban on dancing - on Good Friday, you can shake your hips at the Black Ball in Zurich. Nine bands present themselves with dark sounds on two stages. The four other dance floors invite you to dance the night away. 

If you don't yet have a destination for this year and want to combine your holiday with some festival flair, the Dark Malta Festival might be just the thing for you. For the sixth time now, hip bands from the gothic, industrial and metal scene will be playing on the beautiful Mediterranean island. From 25 to 27 April, the festival attracts numerous visitors from all over the world to celebrate with over 20 bands in a Mediterranean atmosphere.  

The Hexentanz Open Air is a metal, folk and gothic rock festival that will take place from 25/04/2025 to 27/04/2025 in Thallichtenberg near Kusel (Germany), in the beautiful setting of Lichenberg Castle. Top acts such as Mythemia, Storm Seeker and Versengold have been confirmed for the 17th Hexentanz Open Air. Mr Irish Bastard and many more have also been booked.

Whitby Goth Weekend is an alternative music festival consisting of two evenings of live bands and three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) of alternative stalls at Whitby Leisure Centre and Whitby Brunswick Centre. 

Who wants to sail from Cologne to Königswinter on the MS RheinMagie, conquer the Drachenfels and be accompanied by loud gloomy sounds and brute industrial music? Then get your tickets quickly, because tickets are strictly limited and sell out fast! This year, Combichrist, Megaherz, Nachtblut and Soulbound will be on board and provide a real thunderstorm of sound!

The world's largest festival of the ‘black scene’ will take place in Leipzig for the 32nd time from 6 to 9 June 2025. International bands and visitors from all over the world are once again expected at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen. Over 125 bands have already been confirmed, including Combichrist, Klangstabil, L'Ame Immortelle, Noisuf-X, Vomito Negro, Nytt Land and Nouvelle Vague, with more to follow. The supporting programme will once again attract many dark souls to Leipzig and provide eccentric black flair, including the highlights of steampunk and the Victorian picnic in Clara Zetkin Park.

The Rockharz Festival at Ballenstedt airfield in the Harz Mountains is one of the biggest metal festivals in Germany and, surprise surprise - it's already SOLD OUT! Those who still managed to get tickets can look forward to over 50 bands over four days, including Sodom, Overkill, Powerwolf, Greenlung, Heaven Shall Burn, Soulfy and many more. 

The Burning Pants Festival is the ultimate rock music festival for the BDSM, fetish and sex-positive scene and will take place from 4 to 6 July in Hude, Lower Saxony. On two stages, 24 national and international bands from the scene will play and set the stage on fire. The festival is taking place for the fifth time under the motto ‘Let the jogging bottoms burn’. 

ATTENTION CANCELLED! Unfortunately there will be no Castrum Nigra at the Ehrenburg Brodenbach this year. You can find the exact details of the cancellation on the organiser's website.

On July 04-05, 2025, the 25th anniversary of the Castle Rock Festival will take place in Mühlheim an der Ruhr. Katatonia will be the headliner, delighting fans of dark rock. They will be joined by Warkings, Ost+Front, Leaves Eyes and many more. As a personal recommendation, we would like to highlight the Italian underground band Motel Transylvania. These guys are completely underrated and really let it rip live. Let's go!

The air is on fire, hot rhythms take possession of your body and make your blood boil. Party, party, mega party. That's the only thing that counts and it will simply sweep you away. The post-apocalypse comes to life in a location that is in no way inferior to a Mad Max scenery. And your outfit should match, because the Doorbitch looks very closely and knows no mercy. Throw yourself into a dance party packed with DJs, fire shows, live performances and much more. Dive in and let yourself drift.

The name “Tanzbrunnen” is actually far from adequate for the annual Gothic festival classic. It would be fair to rename the location “Mega-Dance-Party-Freak-Out-Endless-Feel-Good-Rockin-Brunnen”, at least for this event. Because that's what the whole area turns into again when VNV Nation, Lord-of-the-Lost, OOMPH!, Suicide Commando or Hell Boulevard, etc. climb the stage. And in the unlikely event that you run out of breath at some point during the two days, you can quickly recharge your batteries on the festival's own sandy beach. Party on!

A tentative glance at the line-up of the German mega-festival brings a smile of anticipation to the face of even the most gothic of black-robed people: Eisbrecher, And One, Subway to Sally, Blutengel, Lacuna Coil, and on and on. Hildesheim is once again calling for a wild gothic prayer in 2025 and the black devotees will follow in droves. But if you want tickets, you have to hurry. So, don't hesitate. It's worth it!

Haven't seen Machine Head live for a long time? Missed Gojira already? Listened to the Blind Guardian playlist? Then it's time for the legendary SUMMER BREEZE Festival. Here you can get an unfiltered dose of metal for your ears. Other mega acts such as In Extremo, Within Temptation, ASP, Donots and countless others will be sharing the stage with the above mentioned bands. Dinkelsbühl is waiting for you on August 13 - 16, 2025.

It didn't take many editions of the gothic rock event initiated by EISBRECHER to catapult it into the league of German super longing festivals. It's hard to find anyone in our community who hasn't been there at least once and hasn't been gripped by the atmosphere. Six fantastic bands will enter the stage and are guaranteed to have no trouble turning the ratiopharm Arena in Neu-Ulm into a quivering boiling pot from the very first chords. Eisbrecher, Joachim Witt, Project Pitchfork, Beauty of Gemina, Schattenmann, Hell Boulevard. Any questions?

On 14 and 15 November, fans of black music will meet at the Plage Noir Festival on the white beach - Weissenhäuser Strand, right on the Baltic Sea. The festival in the holiday park offers more than just dark artists from the scene, but also invites you to a short trip by the sea, with a relaxed overnight stay in a hotel and a supporting programme with interesting readings, workshops and art. All events take place indoors. Perfect for enjoying the fresh sea air during the day and dancing to your favourite bands in the evening.