Southside Festival 2026
If you've spent enough time around the Neuhausen ob Eck, Black Forest area, you've probably heard the unofficial Southside rule: don't make plans for Southside weekend unless those plans involve questionable weather.
Every year, it rains. Every year, somebody ends up standing ankle-deep in mud. Every year, people swear they won't do it again. And every year, they come back.
Southside Festival 2026 delivered pretty much everything the festival is known for. Thunderstorm warnings, schedule changes, blazing heat, a Sunday hailstorm, and enough memorable performances to make the weather feel almost irrelevant by the end of the weekend.
Friday: Evacuation Orders and a 3 A.M. Walk Home
Friday started with an unfortunate but familiar Southside tradition: weather-related chaos.
Around 7 p.m., festivalgoers were asked to leave the festival grounds and return to their cars or other sheltered areas due to a thunderstorm warning. While the decision was understandable from a safety perspective, it also meant missing Filow's set entirely. Of all the schedule changes throughout the weekend, that one was probably the most annoying.
Once the weather situation had calmed down, organizers attempted to salvage the evening by pushing most performances back by roughly an hour. Halsey, Empire of the Sun, BHZ, and Provinz all ended up performing later than originally planned. Even then, things did not run entirely smoothly. Halsey faced additional technical issues, meaning her delayed set started even later than planned. Instead of receiving extra time, however, the shortened schedule meant she had to fit everything into a roughly forty-minute slot, but you wouldn't have known it from watching. Southside has always leaned more toward rock than pop, and Halsey embraced that atmosphere completely. The heavier live arrangements gave several songs a different edge, and the entire performance felt perfectly suited to the festival environment. A more rock-oriented version of "Colors" was an early highlight, but what stood out most was the sheer confidence she brought to the stage. Forty minutes felt far too short, but somehow still enough to remind everyone why she's such a compelling live performer.
Afterward, we headed over to Empire of the Sun. By that point, the crowd seemed relieved to simply be back on festival grounds. "We Are The People" turned the area in front of the stage into one giant dance floor, and for an hour, the weather drama disappeared entirely.
BHZ followed with exactly the kind of set longtime fans had hoped for. The group worked their way through fan favorites, including "Powerade" and "Crash Dummy," while maintaining constant interaction with the crowd. Some of the evening's most emotional moments came when they spoke about their late bandmate Pablo and dedicated songs to him. Messages about appreciating life can sometimes feel routine at festivals, but hearing them from a band that has actually experienced that kind of loss gave those moments a different type of weight.
The final stop of the night was Provinz. Thanks to the delays, their set stretched deep into the early morning hours. By then, exhaustion had begun to catch up with most people. When the band finished what many assumed was their final song, "Spring," we started making our way toward the exit. Then the opening notes of "Tanz für mich" started playing. What followed became one of my favorite memories of the entire weekend: hundreds of people slowly leaving the festival grounds while singing and dancing along to one last song at nearly three o'clock in the morning.
There are probably more spectacular festival moments, but I can't think of many that felt more perfect.
Saturday: Sterben in Karl-Marx-Stadt
If Friday belonged to the rain, Saturday belonged to the heat.
The weather had completely turned around. There was no rain, no thunderstorms, and no clouds willing to provide any meaningful shade. By midday, the festival grounds felt more like an endurance test because of the heat, but the lineup made it worth standing in the blazing sun.
One of the first highlights was grandson, whose performance balanced political conviction with genuine festival energy. One of Saturday's headliners was Yungblud, who once again proved why he remains one of the most entertaining performers on the current festival circuit. Watching Yungblud feels less like watching a concert and more like watching somebody who genuinely cannot believe this is his job. Every movement feels intentional, every crowd interaction feels natural, and his enthusiasm never appears forced. "Lowlife" was a particular standout, and, continuing a tradition from recent shows, he brought a fan on stage to play guitar during "fleabag", creating one of the afternoon's most memorable moments.
Still, I left ten minutes early. Yungblud was great, but Kraftklub was next.
From the moment they stepped on stage, the atmosphere was filled with anticipation. Mosh pits opened instantly, people climbed onto shoulders, strangers linked arms, and the entire crowd seemed to know every single word. The setlist heavily featured songs from Sterben in Karl-Marx-Stadt, which remains one of the strongest German-language albums released in recent years. "Chemie Chemie Ya," "Kippenautomat," "Ein Song reicht," and "Ich will nicht nach Berlin" all landed exactly as expected: loudly.
One of the most entertaining moments came when Felix, the lead singer, wandered into the crowd, handing out ice cream while telling the story of his first and only job working as an ice cream seller at a cinema. Minutes later, he was crowd surfing. Shortly after that, he was standing somewhere in the middle of a mosh pit. The thing that always stands out most about Kraftklub shows isn't just the music, it's also the trust. No matter how chaotic things become, there is always a feeling that everyone is looking out for each other. The crowd pushes hard, dances hard, and jumps hard, but it never feels unsafe.
Two hours passed faster than they had any right to, and the Kraftklub set ended up being the best set on the festival, at least for me.
Later that night, Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys kept the energy going with a crowd that somehow still had enough stamina left for one final party. Italo-Schlager classics, and pure chaos carried the festival deep into the early morning hours before exhaustion finally won.
Sunday: Dog Days Are Over
Sunday started with weather that somehow managed to be worse than Friday's.
Shortly before Florence Road's set, a hailstorm moved across the festival grounds. I ended up listening to much of Florence Road's performance from the press tent before heading back outside for Natasha Bedingfield. Her set brought some much-needed sunshine back to the festival atmosphere, but I left early to catch Kasi & Antonius.
One of the nicest surprises of the weekend was seeing how many people turned up for their performance despite the difficult weather conditions. Songs like "25 Grad" and "vielleicht in einem jahr" translated beautifully to a festival setting, while "meinen die uns" provided one of the afternoon's strongest sing-along moments.
Later came Edwin Rosen. There's something incredibly endearing about watching someone who still seems genuinely surprised by their own success. Despite the rain and difficult conditions, a huge crowd gathered for his set, and throughout the performance, he looked almost overwhelmed by the turnout. As if he still couldn't quite believe people had shown up specifically to see him. The audience certainly had. "Vertigo" was a standout, but more than any individual song, it was Rosen's gratitude that left the biggest impression.
Then came Florence + The Machine. Florence Welch spent the entire set barefoot, despite it having rained for most of the afternoon and the ground still being soaked. Looking out across thousands of people dancing in the rain while Florence sang, and, somewhere behind the crowd, a rainbow slowly appeared as the sun finally broke through the clouds, it felt almost surreal.
The weekend ended with Twenty One Pilots.
By then, most people were running on very little sleep and exhaustion, but it didn't really matter.
The duo delivered exactly what longtime fans wanted, mixing newer material with songs that have defined their live shows for years. Hearing tracks like "Stressed Out" alongside newer (officially released) favorites like "Drag Path" felt like a fitting conclusion to a weekend that constantly balanced nostalgia with excitement for what comes next.
Until Next Year
Southside 2026 was messy. The weather refused to cooperate as always. Schedules changed constantly. Some performances were shortened. Others started hours later than planned. And yet, somehow, those are rarely the things people remember. What people remember are the songs they screamed with strangers, the artists who exceeded expectations, the walk back to camp at three in the morning, and the feeling that for one weekend, an old military airfield becomes its own little world.
Southside has always been a festival that asks a lot from its visitors. A little patience. A little flexibility. Sometimes a rain jacket.
This year, it gave back more than enough in return. You can already buy tickets for next year here!
WANT TO SEE MORE OF THE FESTIVAL? HERE ARE ALL THE PICTURES:
WRITTEN BY
Ilayda
I keep coming back to the same things: music, books, people, and the way certain moments stay longer than they should. Most of what I write starts there and then turns into something I understand a little better.
CAPTURED BY
Maxine
I love to capture little moments in busy streets, but for our magazine, I mostly take editorial, portraits and concerts shots. You can sometime find me reviewing concerts or talking about all and everything during a hot chocolate in interviews with our guests.
