Southside Festival: Germany's Alternative Rock Twin to Hurricane

What Southside Festival Is, and Where to Find It

Southside Festival is an alternative rock and indie festival on a former military airfield near Neuhausen ob Eck, close to Tuttlingen in southern Germany. FKP Scorpio and KOKO & DTK Entertainment organise the event. It began in 1999 at a former military airfield near Munich, with about 15,000 visitors, before moving to its current Neuhausen ob Eck site in 2000. Attendance grew from about 15,000 at that first edition to roughly 30,000 by 2002, and it continued climbing toward the roughly 60,000 mark in later editions. According to the organisers, one festival weekend generates between five and ten million euros in revenue, one measure of how large the event has grown. If you found this page while searching for a street fair or nightlife event elsewhere, this guide covers only the German music festival on the Neuhausen ob Eck airfield. Search engines sometimes surface unrelated street events under similar names; if that is what you meant, this page will not be a match. The organiser announces lineup and dates together each year, instead of locking a date years in advance. Treat any date you see online as provisional until the official site confirms it for the edition you are planning around.

• Location: Neuhausen ob Eck Airfield, near Tuttlingen, southern Germany
• Organisers: FKP Scorpio and KOKO & DTK Entertainment
• Genre: Alternative rock, indie, pop-punk, and electronic
• Typical timing: Organiser-announced, second half of June, same weekend as Hurricane Festival
• Site size: About 800,000 square meters, a former military airfield

The Hurricane Connection: Germany's Twin-Festival Model

Southside and Hurricane Festival are sibling events built by the same production team, sharing one lineup between two cities. Neuhausen ob Eck hosts the southern leg, while Scheeßel hosts Hurricane's northern leg the same weekend. Acts typically play both stops within days of each other, swapping which city gets which night. The two festivals have run as a linked pair for more than two decades, with the shared booking letting the same artists reach both ends of the country in one trip. Travel time usually decides the choice for visitors, since the artist lineup is identical either way. Travelers based in southern Germany or near the Alps tend to pick Southside, while those in the north default to Hurricane. Germany runs a similar twin-festival format elsewhere. Rock im Park in Nuremberg shares its full lineup with Rock am Ring on the same weekend, the same way Southside and Hurricane do. Nuremberg's regional tourism office publishes visitor information for that side of the comparison.

Southside vs. Rock im Park vs. Summer Breeze: Picking the Right Southern German Festival

Southern Germany runs three well-known festivals with different personalities. Southside leans alternative rock, indie, and pop-punk, with an electronic-focused White Stage tent. Rock im Park in Nuremberg leans harder rock and metal, and shares its lineup with Rock am Ring the same weekend. Summer Breeze Open Air in Dinkelsbühl is the most metal-focused of the three. All three are organiser-announced rather than fixed years ahead, so exact dates land close to the edition instead of being locked in advance. Geography can also break the tie. Neuhausen ob Eck and Dinkelsbühl sit within the same general region of southern Germany, while Nuremberg is a larger city with more standalone travel infrastructure around it.

Tickets and Presale: What the Official Site Lists

As of 2026, southside.de structures ticket sales in phases, opening with an early advance sale before a general on-sale, plus separate camping and VIP upgrades. Early-phase tickets are typically the cheapest way in, with prices rising as each phase sells through, though the official site is the only accurate source for current prices. Pricing tracks closely with Hurricane, since the same organiser runs both events, so the bigger budget decision is travel and camping choice rather than ticket tier. The official site also typically publishes a full set timetable a few weeks before the event, alongside newsletter signup for early access to future announcements. If you buy resale tickets, use an authorized channel only, since unofficial resale carries a fraud risk at any large festival. For a heavier, metal-leaning lineup at a comparable southern-Germany price point, Summer Breeze Open Air in Dinkelsbühl runs a similar phased ticket structure. Dinkelsbühl's tourism office covers wider visitor logistics for that event.

Navigating the Neuhausen ob Eck Airfield

The festival site covers roughly 800,000 square meters of former military and airport land, so distances between stages and camping run long by festival standards. Because the grounds are large, budget real walking time between your tent and the main stages, especially if you are carrying camping gear across the site. Multiple stages have operated historically, including a main stage, a side stage, and a second tent, alongside the White Stage tent for electronic sets. When the White Stage tent was introduced, it ran under an Electric Circus theme focused on electronic sets in the late afternoon, a format that has continued into recent lineups. Because it is a former airfield, sections of the ground are paved runway and taxiway rather than grass. Pack for firm, sun-exposed footing and open-field wind, since natural shelter is limited across the site. Heavy rain in 2010 turned much of the grounds to mud. Crews needed sheet iron, wood chips, and hay to make the entrances passable again. Ground conditions can shift fast on an open airfield, so waterproof footwear is worth the extra bag space. Neuhausen ob Eck sits near Tuttlingen, in Baden-Württemberg. The regional tourism board covers wider travel planning for that part of southern Germany, since exact shuttle and parking routes can change between editions.

Camping at Southside: Standard Pitches to Green Living

General camping is the default option included with most tickets, spread across open field and paved sections near the stages. A quieter zone, marketed as green camping, sets stricter rules on noise, cars, and generators for visitors who want fewer late-night neighbors. VIP and standard camping upgrades are sold separately on the official ticket page, though exact inclusions and pricing change each year. Check southside.de before you commit to one. Standard rules across German festival campsites typically include quiet hours overnight and restrictions on open fires. Confirm current specifics on the official camping page before packing gear that might not be allowed. Because parts of the ground are hard-packed airfield surface, bring sturdy stakes rather than standard grass pegs. Wind across the open field can be strong at night, so weight down guylines and skip the largest pop-up shelters.

Lineup Style: What Southside Sounds Like

Southside's core genre is alternative rock, with indie, pop-punk, and pop filling out the rest of the bill. Acts who have played the festival multiple times across the 2000s and 2010s include Queens of the Stone Age, Billy Talent, Beatsteaks, NOFX, and Flogging Molly. That recurring roster gives a sense of the festival's long-running style. Recent editions offer a reasonable benchmark for future bills, since each year's lineup is announced fresh. The 2026 edition included:

• Billy Talent
• Halsey
• The Offspring
• Twenty One Pilots
• Florence + the Machine
• Wolf Alice
• Skindred
• Alexisonfire

Weather, Safety, and What to Pack

Southside's site history includes two documented weather disruptions worth planning around. In 2007, a storm damaged the tent stage before the festival began, and organizers proceeded only after a safety review. In 2008, record attendance combined with hot weather led to an on-site water shortage on the festival's final day. Neither is a yearly risk, but both point toward the same practical prep list.

• A refillable water bottle
• Rain layers for sudden weather changes
• Sun protection for an open, largely unshaded airfield