With a musical fireworks display after a brilliant concert in front of over 6,000 people by Kasalla a successful concert season at KUNST!RASEN has now come to a close. the KUNST!RASEN team led by Katrin Wurm has now dismantled everything, which is no easy feat. A good 90 trucks are needed to transport everything away, with the stage and sound barrier alone requiring over 20 truckloads.
The 13th Season of Kunst!Rasen kicked off on 28th June at Bonn’s Rheinaue park, attracting almost
110,000 spectators. What was striking this year was the large number of visitors from
abroad who came to see the international acts at KUNST!RASEN, with concerts by London Grammar, Fontaines
D.C., Queens of the Stone Age, Billy Idol, Cypress Hill, and AIR receiving particular attention. The guarantors of
good vibes such as Deichkind, Jan Delay, Tream, and Querbeat delivered to their audiences with an exuberant party atmosphere and groovy sounds. At a time when concerts seem to be getting shorter, BAP and Jan Delay showed the way to go with long sets for their fans – hat off particularly to Wolfgang Niedecke playing over three hours at 74 years young.
Kunstrasen 2026
After the show is before the show though and Kunst!Rasen 2026 is already taking shape. Promoter Ernst Ludwig Hartz has already announced the first show with Wincent Weiss on July 17, 2026, and Martin J. Nötzel announced recently that Kölsch rockers Brings will be playing at KUNST!RASEN on July 3, 2026.
“By the beginning of October, the first 10 shows for 2026 will already be announced and mostly available for advance sale,” says Hartz. Katrin Wurm adds: “In total, we are again expecting around
24 concerts in the coming summer season.” Martin J. Nötzel has also also announced
the date for next year’s KLASSIK!PICKNICK, which will take place on July 12, 2026.
“It was one of the most beautiful events this year,” he recalls. “concerts don’t get any better than this. When the weather is right and the spark from the stage hits the audience, music can touch the soul – that’s something only a live concert can do – no streaming or recording can convey these emotions.“
Make a date then: July 2, 2026 – Start of the 14th KUNST!RASEN concert summer down by the Rhine.
3songsbonn retrospective:
I made it to eight of this year’s concerts, where the opening bands were the ones who immediately caught my eye when they were announced. For those of us of a ‘certain age’ Billy Idol, Bonnie Raitt and Lynyrd Skynyrd? They all had to be on my 2025 bucket-list of must-see bands. Here is my best and worst list – feel free to send your own via the comments box under this article.
New Discovery: The Dead South. Not the most energetic and exciting of live bands, but from a musical and lyrical perspective I went home wanting to explore their music deeper and am glad I did.
Close second: Simon McBride who showed in his support slot before Lynyrd Skynyrd why Deep Purple got him in to replace Steve Morse. A guitar-playing whirlwind of a set.
… and 3rd: Yes, I saw New Model Army for the first time. And, yes, I must get to a concert of theirs again!
Most memorable concert: Bonnie Raitt was everything seeing a legend should be: Musically spellbinding, gracious and friendly to the audience. On top of that we had two top class support acts in Henrik Freischlader (a set that was much too short!) and Warren Haynes, who could easily be the main act at Kunstrasen himself, delivered a top-class performance with a perfect band backing him. But why such a small audience? 1600 people? Are Bonnie Raitt fans now too old to travel, or what?!
Biggest disappointment: Fontaines D.C.
The boys from Dublin came, they shouted out ‘Free Palestine’, showed some questionable anti-Jewish images on a big screen, presented the media with a questionable contract, never engaged with their audience… They were my hope for the ‘New Discovery’ choice. The young, mainly female, audience loved them. I guess they don’t have experience or expectations of musicians communicating with their audience and so don’t miss it.
Best Live concert: BAP
After all these years Wolfgang Niedecken is still putting on 3 hour+ shows and has a backing band that clearly takes pleasure in playing music together which in turn gives the older BAP classics a ‘new lick of paint’.
Innovation: The show by London Grammar featured a camera drone literally onstage with the band. It delivered some interesting perspectives (see below) but was distracting.
Overall observations: The organizers are always refining the Kunstrasen’s venue capabilities, and the sound barriers have improved in effectiveness, so that the sound is more powerful than it has been in recent years within the arena but well controlled beyond. Also improved is the flooring in the front-of-stage area.
Not within the Kunstrasen’s control but curious was that so many bands seemed to sell t shirts, tote bags, caps etc but no actual music in the form of cd’s etc. The result of a Spotify generation I suppose.
The controversy over Lynyrd Skynyrd playing one decibel and eight minutes over the limit really is an absurdity. This is live music, over more than two hours. How can a band relax and communicate with its audience when every sentence is deducted from music playinmg time? My recollection is that Skynyrd finished well before 10 pm too, so what was that late finishing all about?! BAP found a solution: start early and have no support act. That’s bad for upcoming bands though, and also bad for the concert atmosphere, particularly early in the season when it’s still bright sunshine at 9 pm. Good is that Bonn has now promised to re-invest the 20,000 Euros in a Kunstrasen project next year, but it should never have come to that!
As negatives: At the sold-out BAP concert I discovered that with a refreshment booth next to the soundboard, and the addition of a new VIP stand, to actually see the stage audience members now had to stand in a narrow strip down the centre of the arena. There were many of the 9000 ticketholders down each side with no actual view of the stage. Not a problem for smaller attendances of course, but I do also miss being able to stand under trees at the side of the arena as a rain/sun shelter. It used to be possible, but in recent years the peripheral areas have become increasingly closed off by an additional wine/beer booth and now the new grandstand. In short – If it rains and you don’t have a VIP ticket – you get wet (admittedly God was kind and the weather was good for all shows – so maybe someone at Kunstrasen knows someone ‘upstairs’!)
Finally, a BIG word of praise for the security people from Eyekeeper GmbH who were always very polite and friendly. It can’t be an easy job overseeing 4000 – 9000 people on such parkland, so if any of you are reading this – Thank You all!