One, zero, three, eight. Those four numbers are all you need to tell how the EmsNoise Rockfest came about.
One: It started with a party in Salzbergen, with exactly one band booked. Zero: The band cancelled. Instead of calling the party off, the organisers got on the phone to find someone who could step in at short notice. Three: That's how many bands said yes in the end — three times as many as had been needed in the first place. At that point the party with a replacement problem had become something else, and the idea for a festival was born.
Eight: That's how many acts take the stage at the Festsaal on Emsstraße on Saturday, 7 November, when the EmsNoise Rockfest returns for its second edition.
From stopgap to registered club
The team came together in 2025, and the festival now runs through the EmsNoise Rockfest e.V. Even the first edition paid out beyond the hall: money was collected for the Kinderhospiz Löwenherz children's hospice and for the anti-fascist initiative "Kein Bock auf Nazis". That also settles what the festival wants to stand for. Openness, tolerance and respect, as the crew puts it — for the team as much as for the bands on stage.
The second principle sits on the line-up page: above all, young, up-and-coming bands should get a stage here, local acts alongside ones known beyond the Emsland. The 2026 bill shows pretty precisely what that looks like.
Two longer journeys
At the top of the bill is MÄNNI from Aachen. What began as a solo project is now a full band: German-language punk rock between melancholy and euphoria, heavy on self-irony, and firmly convinced that punk can be political and still be a hell of a lot of fun. Five releases so far, plus support slots for WIZO, Betontod and Slime. Records with titles like "Mir tut alles weh" (Everything hurts) and "Niete" (Dud) give you a fair idea of how much joy there is in failing here: plenty.
The longest trip belongs to Swallow's Rose. The melodic punks come from the Bavarian Forest and cross the whole country to the Ems as co-headliners. After "Downfall" (2022, SBÄM Records) came tours and festival shows with Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly and Less Than Jake, then a three-year break. In March, Uncle M Music released their third album "The Beginning" — whose first single is called "The End". The swap is deliberate: the record is about searching for footing and clarity, very personal, often about mental health, and musically harder and more direct than its predecessor.
The rest live next door
Home advantage comes courtesy of Blackwood Cherrycakes: punk rock from Salzbergen itself, sung in English, with songs about real-life experiences and a live show built on getting close to the crowd. They already played here in 2025 and return with new material; if all goes to plan, a new album will be out before the festival.
A few kilometres up the Ems lies Rheine, home of the Hot Lizards. Four friends, formed in 2023, alternative punk rock with the energy of the nineties and early noughties — and since it's best to be honest about these things, the debut album they released in August is called "Kids Of The 90's". Ten songs, self-written, self-recorded.
From Suddendorf in the Grafschaft Bentheim come The Redphones, a five-piece playing alternative rock with catchy melodies and a DIY attitude. Their EP "Juice" came out in 2020, followed in 2023 by the album "Saft" — which is simply German for juice. Same idea, second language.
PRIVACY travel in from Osnabrück and bring the evening's quieter, wider moments: alternative rock with floating soundscapes that keep tipping over into distorted guitars, topped by a voice that would rather be vulnerable than loud.
Joe Farmer from Wettringen are the veterans of the field. The six of them have been rehearsing in the western Münsterland since 2002, playing pop-punk with trombone and singing in German about performance pressure, self-doubt and status anxiety, but also about hope and new beginnings — and occasionally about plastic sunglasses from the discount store. Their self-assessment on the festival site is the best band description of the year: Joe Farmer, they say, are the SC Freiburg of the band scene. You don't have to love them — but you kind of have to like them.
And then there's Jonas Egbers from Meppen, a singer-songwriter who plays sometimes with a band, sometimes acoustic. His first single came out in 2020, followed in 2021 by the album "My Name Is Jonas" and "Diese kleine Stadt", a song about Meppen, and most recently the EP "SMILE", made with producer Stefan Knoess. He has supported Montreal, Hi!, Kontrollverlust, Jack Pott and EL\*KE.
Eight acts, then: two who travel a bit further to get here, and six from the Emsland, the Münsterland, the Grafschaft Bentheim and Osnabrück. Exactly the mix the team set out to build.
Getting there
The EmsNoise Rockfest takes place on Saturday, 7 November 2026 at the Festsaal, Emsstraße 12, 48499 Salzbergen. The festival ticket costs 26 euros from the festival's own online shop, which also sells the 2026 festival shirt and lets you support the event directly with a donation. If you want to listen in first, the crew has put together a Spotify playlist of every band on the line-up page.
One band cancelled, back then. Someone really ought to send them a thank-you card.
