Hello Leipzig: Here’s how Thursday 13 August 2026 gets underway

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To ensure students don’t go a bit mad in the campus library, some study areas will remain closed today. The community bus is back in action and is running its service in the south-west today. At the zoo, there’s another theatre performance for the little ones – and for anyone who’s kept their inner child alive. After 28 years, it’s time to say goodbye to the Highfield Festival just outside the city gates.

Too expensive! Highfield Festival is packing up

Großpösna is set to become a place of pilgrimage today for fans of the Highfield Festival. They’re likely to experience this major event with a touch of wistfulness: after 28 years, the festival is taking place for the last time in its current form. A “creative break” has been announced for 2027, during which the concept is to be rethought.

Whether and in what form Highfield will return afterwards, and whether Lake

Störmthal

will remain the venue, is currently unclear. The first edition of ‘Highfield’ took place in June 1998 at the Hohenfelden Reservoir (Thuringia

). The festival runs until Sunday, 16 August.

The Bierbabes will kick off the music programme today at 8 pm, followed by the Drunken Masters from 9 pm to 11 pm. At Electric Beach, Rutger Live will perform from 11 pm to 11.30 pm, followed by The Ironix from 11.30 pm to 1.30 am and Miami Lenz from 1.30 am to 3 am. The main concert programme then begins tomorrow, Friday, at 3 pm, with ITCHY on the Main Stage. Among the best-known names on the entire line-up are Feine Sahne Fischfilet, Kraftklub, SDP, Beatsteaks, Marteria, 01099, BHZ, Giant Rooks and Dropkick Murphys.

The organisers have chosen “HIGHFIELD. ONE LAST DANCE.” as the theme for this year’s edition and announced on 16 July that, after almost 30 years, the festival would “take place for the last time this year”. The economic conditions facing major music festivals are cited as the main reason for this decision. The official statement notes that the operating conditions have “changed significantly” in recent years. A festival of this quality and scale cannot be sustained by passion alone.

According to FKP Scorpio and Semmel Concerts, costs for staff, equipment, artists’ fees and energy have risen by around 45 per cent compared with the period before the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the higher cost of living is dampening demand for festival tickets. Highfield is therefore no longer economically viable in its current form.

However, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that Lake Störmthal itself or disputes with the municipality of Großpösna were decisive factors in the decision. Visitors should also note this year that festival admission, camping and parking are being offered separately. The festival pass has been advertised for 2026 from 149 euros; the price tier actually available at the time of purchase may differ.

Important for rail travellers: the festival pass does not include a free train journey. From today, official shuttle buses will run from the east side of Leipzig Central Station

to the festival site at Störmthaler See. The shuttle bus flat rate costs 12 euros in advance or 15 euros on the day and covers the journey to the festival and back. Anyone wishing to stay overnight on the festival site will need a camping pass in addition to the festival pass; parking may also be subject to a separate charge.

All information on the programme and prices for this massive rock festival is summarised HERE ONLINE

.

A little fox sneaks through the zoo

Things are probably a bit quieter at Leipzig Zoo. Today, there’s a change of theatre company as part of the summer theatre programme for children on holiday. Following ‘Theater Fingerhut’ and ‘Theater Wi & Wo’, ‘PAPPERLAPAPP’ kicks off today with ‘Krümelchen’s Adventures’. The play, suitable for children aged 4 and over, will be performed at 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm in the ‘Kiwara-Kopje’ event area of the African savannah.

The story centres on a little boy called Krümel, who lives a sheltered life with his grandparents on the edge of the forest. He knows his familiar surroundings inside out, from the ants in the garden to the inhabitants of the tree and the hoot of the owl. But when his grandparents go into the forest one day to pick blueberries, everything changes for Krümelchen. For the first time, he is left home alone – and suddenly someone is sneaking around the house…

And so a story full of temptations, promises and adventurous twists takes its course. This Czech folk tale weaves its plot together with German and Czech folk songs. There will be two further performances at the same times on Friday. On Saturday, also at half past two and half past four, ‘Theater Wi & Wo’ returns to perform the story of ‘Princess Isabell and the Potato King’, before the summer holidays come to an end on Sunday with the final performances of ‘Krümelchen’s Adventures’.

Admission to the children’s theatre performances is included in the price of entry to the Zoological Garden. Summer season prices apply: a day ticket costs 25 euros for adults and 17 euros for children aged 6 to 16. Children under 6 years of age are admitted free of charge. The reduced admission price is 21 euros; a family ticket for two adults and up to four children aged 6 to 16 costs 65 euros. Holders of the City of Leipzig Holiday Pass are admitted free of charge.

If you buy your day ticket online, you’ll not only get through the entrance more quickly but will also receive a travel pass valid for public transport within LVB fare zone 110. Leipzig Zoo, at Pfaffendorfer Straße 29, is open from 9 am to 7 pm, so all puppet theatre performances take place during regular visiting hours. Tram line 12 stops right outside the main entrance. There is also a multi-storey car park for cars and bicycles.

Citizens’ bus back on the road

The City of Leipzig’s community service bus is stopping off in the south-west today: from 10.00 to 12.00 and from 13.00 to 17.00, the mobile community service centre will be on Anton-Zickmantel-Straße, 04249 Leipzig, opposite Kaufland.

Residents can generally use the service without booking an appointment in advance and carry out the same tasks there as at the permanent citizens’ office locations. These include residence-related matters such as registering or changing your address, deregistering when moving abroad, as well as obtaining certificates of residence and other documents required under residence registration law.

Applications for identity cards can also be made, and the usual related citizens’ office matters – such as enquiries regarding the online ID function (eID) – can be clarified. The service also includes applying in person for a certificate of good conduct, official certification of copies and signatures, provided that the relevant procedure is eligible for certification under the general rules of the Citizens’ Offices, as well as the Leipzig Pass and other matters relating to discounts, insofar as these form part of the Citizens’ Offices’ regular portfolio.

In addition, there are further certificates and documents from the range of services offered by the Citizens’ Service Centres. The city explicitly classifies passport, identity card and registration matters as the core business of its Citizens’ Service Centres.

Visitors should note one particular point regarding chargeable services: cash payments are not accepted on the Citizens’ Service Bus; fees can only be paid by cashless methods. The city cites security reasons for this.

However, the mobile service should not be equated with a town hall for all administrative matters. The ‘full range of services’ stated by the city refers to the services provided by the Citizens’ Offices. Matters that are not handled there cannot therefore be dealt with solely via the mobile service on the bus.

This applies, for example, to specific driving licence procedures: the relevant specialist department for the issue, extension or transfer of driving licences is the Driving Licence Affairs section of the Public Order Office. Civil registry services and specialist procedures handled by other departments are also not part of the Citizens’ Service Bus’s regular offering.

The vehicle has only been in regular service since this year. The Citizens’ Service Bus made its first regular stop on 27 January 2026 in Böhlitz-Ehrenberg. Prior to this, the city had procured the vehicle and converted it into a mobile citizens’ office. The purchase had already been announced in the 2022 Citizens’ Service Report. With the bus, the city aims to make the services of its citizens’ offices accessible close to home, even in areas where no permanent office is available.

Construction work at the University Library

Anyone wishing to work in the campus library today should be prepared for restrictions on the second basement level. Maintenance work is taking place on the glass roof at the library on Universitätsstraße 3. For safety reasons, the workspaces in the spacious light well will therefore be closed off. The library itself will remain open as usual today from 8 am to midnight.

The usual entrance via the lecture theatre building of Leipzig University is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 10 pm; after that, visitors can access the library via the night entrance on Augustusplatz. Library services are available Monday to Friday from 8 am to 6 pm.

According to the library’s orientation map, the second basement level houses, amongst other things, the open-access section for Computer Science with call sign groups SQ–SU, as well as parts of the open-access section for Economics with call sign groups QP 300–QY. In addition, there are the call number groups ZG–ZS for technical management. The restrictions apply exclusively to today, 13 August; the Leipzig University Library has not announced any further closures.