Gothic music and culture festival in Leipziga

About Event

The date of the event is unique for each year. In 2021 the date is May 21.

Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT) is the world’s largest Gothic music and art festival held annually in Leipzig, Germany.

The date of WGT changes every year because it depends on the Catholic and Lutheran Trinity Sunday. Officially WGT starts on Friday and goes until early Tuesday morning, but in fact the action starts on Thursday night.

Goths from all over the world come to the festival to listen to gothic music and participate in gothic events which cover the whole city of Leipzig for 4 days. According to unofficial estimates in recent years this festival is attended by up to 30,000 people, which gives this festival a truly international status.

Goth movement was born in England in 1970s, this subculture is very diverse, but in one way or another it is characterized by the following features: gloomy image, black color of clothing, interest in mysticism and decadence and gothic music.

In East Germany a group of fans of this subculture decided to gather everyone who is close to their spirit and world view in one place. They called this event “Wave-Gotik-Treffen” (where “treffen” means meeting). And this first attempt was made in 1987 in Potsdam.

But because the festival was not legal and was illegal, only a few hundred people came. And it was not much better with gothic in Germany than in CIS countries nowadays, so the first meeting of “people in black” was dispersed.

The first official festival was held in 1992 in Leipzig, in “Eiskeller” club, and it gathered about fifteen hundred people. Since then, WGT is held every year in this German city, gathering year after year more and more fans of the “dark” music from all over the world. And this event began to be approved by many famous music bands.

At the beginning of the 21st century WGT has become one of the largest events of gothic music and culture in the world. During the festival German city is filled with people in dark black robes, with metal jewelry and frightening makeup.

The idea of the festival is to hold concerts on 12-15 stages in the city, where one after another performs many bands and musicians – about 200 performers in various musical genres of gothic culture. Every night there are parties with famous DJs at these venues.

But Wave-Gotik-Treffen is not just a music festival. Also within the framework of the festival are various staged medieval fairs, film and audio premieres, exhibitions, theatrical performances, role-playing games, church concerts, all kinds of lectures, seminars, “tours of the oldest and most beautiful cemeteries in Leipzig” and much more.
Many of the guests of the festival are middle-aged people, not just young people
Many visitors to the festival are middle-aged people, not just young people.

Since 2001 the festival is an official and large-scale event of Leipzig and is part of the cultural program of the city’s tourism department, so the city prepares for the event in advance with the support, including financial, from the city government. A lot of attention is paid to safety, law and order and cleanliness.

And although for the duration of the festival Leipzig turns into a “haven of goths”, the appearance of which is sometimes shocking: white makeup, black long hair, eerie makeup, unimaginable outfits and accessories, but the locals have got used to this festival for a long history of its implementation, so the atmosphere in the city is full of friendliness and calmness. The more so that the Goths behave very friendly, do not refuse requests to take a joint picture. It is also worth saying that many guests of the festival are middle-aged people, not just young people.

There are several festivals of gothic music and art on a global scale, but undoubtedly the largest and most popular is Wave-Gotik-Treffen – Festival of Gothic music and culture in Leipzig.