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Not everyone loves beer and for wine lovers, there is the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt in Bad Dürkheim. If you speak even the slightest bit of German, you’re probably thinking ‘wine’ is a typo and really I meant sausage. Despite “Wurstmarkt” translating to ‘sausage market,’ this festival is all about wine and we’ll get to why shortly.
Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt is the Super Bowl, the World Cup, the Olympics for wine. For nine days, 685,000 wine lovers will descend on Bad Dürkheim to celebrate more than 600 years of tradition and have 300 wines to choose from. It should be noted Bad Dürkheim’s population is just under 19,000. With that much foot traffic, it is the largest wine festival in the world. There are even impressive fireworks shows on Sept. 10 and 16.
The setting will be very similar to Oktoberfest. Live music, dozens of carnival rides, long skinny tables where you will no doubt make friends, patrons donning dirndls and lederhosen except instead of steins full of beer (you can still get beer but that would be blasphemy) you’ll see glasses full of everything from chardonnay to cabernet.
685,000 guests over nine days for a village with a population of just under 19,000 may seem daunting but here is everything you need to know.
So, it’s a sausage market but it’s a wine festival. Humans have loved wine for a really, really long time and Bad Dürkheim is the site of many ancient wineries. Even the Romans cultivated grapes here in the 12th century. It was also around that time, local merchants gathered to sell food and wine to pilgrims heading to Michaelskapelle, a chapel on top of the nearby mountain. It was referred to as a ‘wurstmarkt’ or ‘sausage market’ due to a large number of sausages. The name stuck despite its primary celebration of wine but don’t worry, there are still plenty of sausages.
Seating
It will be similar but different from the large tables you see at Oktoberfest. Inside the “Schubkarchstand,” or wine stands, narrow wooden benches line equally narrow tables. Wine lovers sit back to back and elbow to elbow. You’re likely going to make friends whether you like it or not. Local poet, Karl Räder, said it best, “Here you meet good old acquaintances, you have not seen your life yet.
Lingo:
"Wein" - Wine "Rotwine" - Red wine "Weißwein" - White wine "Sekt" - Sparkling wine "Eiswine" - Dessert wine produced from grapes frozen on the vine "Weindorf" - Wine village "Schubkarchstand" - Small wine stand consisting of long skinny tables "Dubbeglas" - A stemless wine glass mainly used in the Rhineland-Palatinate area. Looks similar to a pint glass with round indentations. It was historically designed to prevent slippage. "Prost!" - Cheers!
KMC area: By train: Take the train to Neustadt. Trains to Bad Dürkheim run every 30 minutes. Total trip time: 45-1hr By car: Taking the A6 or B37 will get you to the festival in about 45-minutes.
Stuttgart: By train: Take the train to Mannheim. The RNV Streetcar runs every half hour to Bad Dürkheim. Total trip time: 90 minutes By car: Taking the A6 or the A8 will get you there in roughly 2 hours.
Wiesbaden: By train: Connect in Mainz to Ludwigshafen. The RNV streetcar runs every 30 minutes to Bad Dürkheim. By car: By taking the A61 or the A67 you can get there in under 90 minutes.
Bavaria: By Train: A three-hour train ride will take you to Mannheim where the RNV shuttle runs every half hour to the festival. Total time: 4 hours By car: Taking the A8 from Munich will get you into the area in 4 hours.
About 2,200 managed and another 1,500 unmanaged parking spaces are available. You’ll see signs directing you to parking areas once in the village. Good luck. Remember tens of thousands of people will be there each day for those small number of spots.
Lodging:
Very few rooms are left in Bad Dürkheim and currently running from 100 euros on up. The cheapest hotels are in nearby Ludwisghafen and a shuttle runs from Ludwigshafen to Bad Dürkheim every half hour.
Dates and times:
Sept. 6: 1 p.m. - 2 a.m. Sept. 7: 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. Sept. 8: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m. Sept. 9: 7 a.m. - 12 a.m. Sept. 10: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m. Sept. 13: 11 a.m - 2 a.m. Sept. 14: 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. Sept. 15: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m. Sept. 16: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m.
