Wine festival with tradition

What few people know: Where the Artists' Colony Mathildenhöhe stands today, wine was grown for centuries. Darmstadt in southern Hesse, now an internationally renowned centre for science and art, has been surrounded by vineyards since the Middle Ages at the latest. A very special tribute to the wine-growing tradition, which is now being revived in the city, is the Darmstadt Wine Festival, which has been taking place for almost 40 years.

From Thursday 4. September to Sunday 7. September 2025, various wine and gastronomy stands invite visitors to take a culinary stroll, taste, enjoy and linger in Wilhelminenstraße.

Numerous wineries from Hessian wine-growing regions such as the Bergstrasse and the Rheingau, Rheinhessen as well as the Palatinate and the Nahe will present their fine wines at the stands. Among them are many family-run businesses as well as vintners who have specialised in organic viticulture or grow special grape varieties.

Opening hours of the wine festival

Thursday to Saturday: 12 noon to midnight

Sunday: 12 noon to 9 pm

Further events during the Wine Festival

Saturday 6.9.

•     Festival in the Schulstraße

Sunday 7.9.

•     Open Sunday: On the occasion of the Darmstadt Wine Festival, the shops in the city centre are open to visitors on Sunday (7.9.) from 1 pm to 6 pm.
•     Fahrradaktionstag (Marktplatz)

Organ concert at the Wine Festival

Saturday, 6.9.2025, 6 p.m.
Concert ‘Im Rausch der Klänge’; venue: St. Ludwig

Christian Segmehl, one of Germany's most sought-after saxophonists, and Johannes Mayr, cathedral organist in Stuttgart, will be performing at this year's wine festival concert in St Ludwig's. A cheerful and festive programme for this particularly appealing combination of instruments promises a refreshing hour in the church at the end of the wine festival mile.

Admission free, donations requested.