“In the Streets: City Stage” – Lucerne’s Street Music Festival Reinvents Itself

The “In the Streets” concerts have been a popular fixture of Lucerne Festival’s program since 2005. Now this “festival within the Festival” is reinventing itself. For six days each year at the end of August, it fills Lucerne’s city center with sound and is open to all – and now with a stronger focus on direct interaction with audiences. At the same time, “In the Streets: City Stage” forges musical connections with Lucerne Festival’s main program, which runs from 13 August to 13 September and presents more than 120 events, primarily in the venues of the KKL Luzern and on the Europaplatz. Sebastian Nordmann, the Festival’s new Executive and Artistic Director, has appointed cultural manager and former Contemporary director Felix Heri to lead the project; for three of the seven projects, Lucerne Festival is also collaborating with guerillaclassics from Zurich.

From 25 to 30 August 2026, the new “In the Streets: City Stage” will draw on a series of creative projects to forge artistic cross-connections exploring the summer theme “American Dreams.” This means that some of the artists performing at the KKL can also be experienced in Lucerne’s city center. In addition, musicians of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) will now also perform for audiences in public spaces on Kapellplatz and Weinmarkt.

“We want this new street music festival to get even more people excited about our Festival concept – especially those who might not otherwise go to classical concerts,” explains Sebastian Nordmann. “Through formats such as pop-up concerts or our ‘Jukebox,’ we engage directly with the audience and create new, accessible ways into classical music.”

All dates and further information on “In the Streets: City Stage”
Photos may be downloaded at lucernefestival.ch/en/press/photos

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