Friday night at Pantheon saw the Decennial start of Bonn’s celebrated Over the Border Festival. Yes, that’s ten years of World Class music from all over the World. This year represented by 22 concerts featuring 128 artists from 37 Countries.

Amongst those 128 artists is Bonn’s own keyboard wizard Marcus Schinkel, who described the rehearsal for this one opening show featuring ‘Local Ambassadors’ as an intense but joyous event, where the musicians, including six singers from Cuba, Senegal, and Peru had time only to meet up just once in advance and rehearsed for 10 hours to perform just this single concert. Hats off to all the backing musicians for this including Mike Herting (keys), Bob Vogston (guitar), Marius Goldhammer (bass) Papa Samory Seck (percussion) for managing to cross so many musical seas so calmly on the night.

Thanks to Sabine Büttner for her pictures capturing some of the action and energy from day one of the Festival which runs to 1 June. Here is an overview of who and what is still to come:

Key 2026 Festival Highlights & Schedule (English Details):

• Opening Night (Local Ambassadors): March 6, 2026, 20:00, Pantheon Bonn.
• Transkarpation Balkan Night (Czarnina & Luiku): March 8, 2026, 19:00, Harmonie.
• Piers Faccini & Ballakè Sissoko: March 12, 2026, 20:00, Pantheon-Theater.
• Ana Carla Maza (Cuban Cello): March 14, 2026, 20:00, Pantheon-Theater.
• Omar Jatta Collective: March 15, 2026, 19:00, Harmonie.
• Sami Galbi (Gourmet-Trap): March 17, 2026, 20:00, Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld (Köln).
• Sousou & Maher Cissoko: March 20, 2026, 20:00, Pantheon-Theater.
• Lucas Santtana: March 22, 2026, 19:00, Harmonie.
• Ismael de Barcelona (Flamenco): March 27, 2026, 20:00, Lutherkirche (Köln).
• Luiza (French-Brazilian Pop): April 28/29, 2026, 20:00, Pantheon-Theater.
• La Nuit d’Afrique (Sahel to Rhine): June 1, 2026, 20:00, Philharmonie Köln. 

Ticketing and Location Information:

Abo Ticket: A 7-show subscription (Abo 2 OTB) is available from €119.00. 

Venues: Primarily Pantheon-Theater (Bonn-Beuel), Harmonie (Bonn), and selected venues in Cologne (Köln).

Tickets: Available through Eventim, KölnTicket, and Viagogo.

More details in German on the OVER THE BORDER WEBSITE

(A pity, given the International status of the Festival, that this years programme is no longer available in English)