The 2026 Leipzig Children’s Night Race is back at the velodrome + Videos

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The Leipzig Children’s Night Race, now in its 22nd year, returned to the newly refurbished velodrome on 14 August 2026. Following the 2025 race at the old exhibition centre – which proved a success despite the unfamiliar venue and change of time – it wasn’t just the organizers who were delighted. The audience and participants also showed their appreciation by turning out in large numbers.

According to the organizers, around 4,500 spectators attended this year, and the starting line-up was well-filled with over 600 participants aged between 3 and 12. Before the race began, we asked Georg Wehrstedt, one of the organizers of the Children’s Night Race, for his first impressions.

Children’s Night Race: an atmosphere somewhere between a family fun day and a festival. Photo: Thomas Köhler

Welcome back to the velodrome. How many years has it been?

We’re now holding our 22nd race this year – the 22nd Children’s Night Race. And this year, we’re finally back here following the completion of the construction work. Last year we were at the old exhibition centre as a temporary alternative, and we’re delighted to be back here in our usual venue – we’re really looking forward to it.

Opening ceremony with Jens Lehmann, Andreas Frank, Bernd Merbitz, Georg Wehrstedt, Roland Hempel and Heiko Rosenthal. Photo: Thomas Köhler

How are registrations looking this year? How many are there?

Well, we’re in the fortunate position of actually having more entries every year. And this year we’re at over 600. We simply had to close registration at 600, because otherwise the race would take too long – there would be too many participants. So we closed registration at 600 and are delighted that the race continues to enjoy such popularity.

We’ll see how it all goes. I’ll report back on it – thank you very much in any case.

As always, the atmosphere at the Leipzig Children’s Night Race was a cross between a family celebration and a festival. The technical set-up was still being fine-tuned, the registration tents were swamped, and refreshments and other food were flying off the shelves.

With a wide range of entertainment on offer, from a bouncy castle area to a bubble artist, the wait until the start of the first race was well and truly passed. Before that, however, the races in the U9–U13 licence class, featuring the SC DHfK and RSV Speiche, took place on the track. We’ve captured some highlights of these, as well as the children’s races, in a video.

As was the case last year, the children and young people from the Leipzig International Space Education Institute – this time joined by the ‘Bellatrix Space Team’ from Istanbul Technical University – were present with their Moon Rovers and the Cyberbug. A lot has been happening there, so we’ll just mention it briefly here. A separate article on this will follow in the next few days.

The time leading up to the opening of the races, which included a few speeches, passed all too quickly. The first races, the first prize-giving ceremonies – things moved along at a rapid pace. Not every child made it onto the podium, but they all received their ‘hero’s certificate’ and were proud to have completed the 400, and later 800 and more, metres.

Once the 2019–2023 age groups had completed their races, there was the ‘Moonbuggy Race’ showpiece – as mentioned earlier, there will be a separate article on this later. Then the action continued, this time well into the night, with the races for the 2014–2018 age groups.

The atmosphere was great; the younger heroes were often taken home after the break, the older ones drove themselves, and the winners were treated to a ride around the track in a Mercedes convertible.

It was yet another resounding success for the children’s night race in Leipzig; the organisers will soon begin planning for 2023.