Tip: Tap the play icon for an audio preview!

283 Festivals Before New Year's: The Complete Autumn and Winter Schedule

Open-air season is as good as over: seven open airs are still to come, the last on 10 October. After that everything moves indoors — and yet 283 festivals still sit in the KRACH calendar between 14 September and 31 December. Most of them not on fields and airfields, but in halls, youth centres, club cellars and beach resorts. Together that's 404 festival days and more than 2,100 bands.

October is the densest month with 102 festivals, November follows with 87, September still manages 70 in its second half, and December closes the year with 24. Here are the dates worth marking.

What's Left of September

The heaviest slab lands on the third weekend of September. In Weimar, the Party.San Herbstoffensive VII fills the Uhrenwerk for two days on 18 and 19 September, with Deserted Fear on Friday and The Ruins Of Beverast, Kvaen and Malthusian on Saturday. The official poster carries the words “The Final Ride”: after seven editions, the indoor sister of the Obermehler open air is calling it a day.

Leipzig goes considerably more colourful: the NEXUS – Nerd Rock Festival brings 19 bands across three days to the agra Messepark from 18 to 20 September, led by Stand Atlantic and Smash Into Pieces.

That same weekend belongs to punk too. In Luxembourg, the Mad Ones Fest reaches its third edition from 18 to 20 September — three days, three stages, 24 bands at the Schluechthaus, from Fights & Fires via Antillectual to Gob. And in Salzgitter, SZaturday Grind Fever spends two days pushing the tempo at the JugendKulturWerkstatt Forellenhof, with Sanitys Dawn and Cerebral Enema.

A week later Cologne becomes the centre. Euroblast brings Haken, Decapitated, Textures and Swallow the Sun to the Essigfabrik from 25 to 27 September — after more than 20 years still Europe's home for everything intricate. The Saturday after, Müllem mon Amour turns a single evening into a full festival and uses both halls of the Carlswerk to do it — Carlswerk Victoria and Club Volta: 23 acts, among them Team Scheisse, Maria Iskariot and Kaput Krauts.

Running in parallel: Eternum Fest over three days at Dresden's Parkhotel, and in Hamburg the Reeperbahn Festival takes over half the city from 16 to 19 September, as it does every year.

September signs off on the 26th with Last Chance to Dance in Dülmen — held inside the düb public swimming baths. Twelve bands between the pools and the tiling, led by Mr. Hurley & Die Pulveraffen and Randale.

October: The Densest Month of the Year

102 festivals in 31 days — statistically, October is the fullest month in the entire KRACH calendar.

The first weekend opens with a double. In Baarlo, ProgPower Europe gathers 15 bands around Einar Solberg and The Dear Hunter from 2 to 4 October, while in Swiss Pratteln Up In Smoke fills the Z7 with smoke for three days — with Tito & Tarantula, 1000mods, Zeal & Ardor and Ufomammut.

The second weekend belongs to heavy riffs. In Nijmegen, Soulcrusher delivers 20 bands between doom and grind on 9 and 10 October, with YOB and Nails at the top. At the same time, Keep It Low turns Munich's Backstage into stoner central for two days: Slomosa, 1000mods, Hällas and Causa Sui.

If you want that weekend harder or faster, you have options: in Graz, ErntePUNKfest fills Halle E on 9 and 10 October with Raised Fist, Grade 2 and Pridebowl, while in the Black Forest the Black Forest Fest celebrates its ninth edition at the Kulturzentrum Klosterhof in Villingen-Schwenningen — with Pagan Altar and Bullet.

On 16 October, Desertfest Belgium starts in Seraing with 42 bands across three days. A day later, the Nordhorn Deathfest puts ten bands on near the Dutch border. Meanwhile in the canton of Vaud, Croc' the Rock celebrates its 15th anniversary from 21 to 24 October and adds a fourth night especially for it: on Wednesday, six befriended bands play the songs that shaped those 15 years — and the entire box office from that evening goes to the bands. Makthaverskan, YARD, Treeboy & Arc, HotWax and Bucket follow.

The last October weekend is the blackest of the year. In Maastricht, Samhain brings Paradise Lost, Wolves in the Throne Room and Oranssi Pazuzu together on 24 and 25 October. In Hirschaid, the Braincrusher Nuclear Winter Festival delivers 16 bands led by Destruction and Exumer, and in Löbau Schwarzer Herbst runs three days of neofolk and dark ambient around Ashram and Darkwood. If you would rather pogo than wear black, head to Dresden's Chemiefabrik two days earlier: Pogorausch lands there on 22 October with Bonecrusher.

On that same 24 October, the European Dark Dance Treffen turns Mannheim's MS Connexion Complex into a dancefloor: 18 acts, led by Suicide Commando, Agonoize and Unzucht.

Finally, at Halloween, Core Fest in Göppingen follows up with Boston Manor, Paleface Swiss and Thrown.

November: Indoor Season

November is the month of indoor festivals — and of beach resorts.

METAL & HELL Festival Vol. 3 opens it in Essen from 5 to 7 November: 22 bands across two venues on Viehofer Platz, Thursday at Don't Panic, Friday and Saturday at Turock. Presented by Dying Victims Productions, Deaf Forever and Artilleriefeuer, with Metal Inquisitor, Ketzer, The Coffinshakers, Fifth Angel and At War.

That same weekend shows just how wide this calendar stretches. In Hünfelden, a village in the Limburg hinterland, the No Name Festival runs on 6 and 7 November — 16 bands in the Mehrzweckhalle Ohren, eight a day, on a timetable that starts at 14:30 on both days and finishes just before midnight. Friday is topped by Goldsmith, Saturday by Herzparasit and Elmsfire. The nicest slot, though, goes to Rote Asche: the band is from Ohren itself — the very hamlet whose village hall they play on the Friday evening.

Things get considerably heavier at the same time in Heilbronn, where Blast of Eternity takes over the Maschinenfabrik: Wytch Hazel, Fellowship and Signum Regis deliver two days of heavy and power metal of the old-fashioned kind.

On 14 November, Eindhoven's Klokgebouw becomes the Helldorado Festival — with a bill that could hardly be broader: Eagles Of Death Metal, The Exploited, Converge and Amenra in a single night. The same weekend, Rolling Stone Beach runs at Weissenhäuser Strand with Razorlight and The Notwist, while Neuss Now spreads 21 acts over two days.

For hardcore fans, though, that weekend is settled in Schweinfurt: the Stäbruch Fest runs over two days for the first time on 13 and 14 November at the Stattbahnhof. Friday belongs to NYHC veterans Sheer Terror; Saturday stacks up NASTY, Combust and SPY — one of NASTY's few shows this year. If you want the 14th heavy and slow instead, head to the Neue Gebläsehalle in Neunkirchen, where the Gloomaar Festival brings My Sleeping Karma and Holy Fawn together.

Just how elastic the word "festival" is gets demonstrated in Lucerne: the There Are Worse Bands Festival spreads 26 bands across 13 evenings in nine rooms from 11 to 21 November — a harbour bar, a record shop, a brewpub, the Gewerbehalle, the Jazzkantine. The heaviest night lands on 15 November at the Musikzentrum Sedel, where Path Of Wrath, Contravoz, Crooked Eyes and A Lost Game play under the banner "Anti-Kater Mosh"; Blind Butcher and Wolfwolf close it out at the Jazzkantine on 21 November.

In Übersee, Upper Bavaria, a completely new format starts from 19 to 21 November: the Black Moon Festival, a participatory youth project where young people from the region help shape booking, organisation and delivery. Each day has its own colour — Thursday indie, Friday heavy rock with Colour Haze headlining, Saturday punk and offbeat with Salò.

Then Weissenhäuser Strand gets taken over twice in a row: first from 20 to 21 November by Plage Noire with Lacrimosa, Eisbrecher and Project Pitchfork, then a week later by METAL HAMMER Paradise. Its 25 bands make perhaps the strongest indoor bill of the year: Friday Kreator, The Halo Effect, Destruction and Tiamat; Saturday Doro, Knorkator, Sacred Reich and Unleashed.

Wedged between those two beach weekends sits perhaps the month's most singular date, on 21 November: the Wolfsnacht im Frankenwald. Nordhalben, around 1,600 inhabitants, deep in the Upper Franconian forest — and in the middle of it the Nordwaldhalle, where six bands fold folk rock, medieval music and metal into each other: Munarheim, Feuerwulf, Lykana, Mighty Dragonlords, Eldskål and Balberskult. After last year's premiere the festival now enters its second round — and, as the organisers promise, bigger and louder than the first time.

If you want that weekend quieter: Munich's Kranhalle runs the 5NDREAS Postrock Festival in parallel — two days, twelve bands, put together by a single promoter at his own risk, with Telepathy and Lost in Kyiv.

December: Smaller, But Not Quieter

24 festivals in December, and the biggest of them has the fattest bill of the whole season. Eindhoven Metal Meeting packs 30 bands into the Effenaar on 11 and 12 December, topped by Death Angel and Rotting Christ.

The same weekend in Leipzig, the Heavy Crisis Festival fills two nights at the TV-Club: 14 bands between pagan, black and death metal, led by Unverkalt and Munarheim — who thereby turn up in this schedule for the second time in three weeks. The festival's entire profit goes to antifascist projects. On 12 December in Veghel, MOMfest fills the Blauwe Kei with twelve acts, among them An Evening With Knives and Maria Iskariot.

A week earlier, two very different festivals share the weekend: in Berlin, De Mortem et Diabolum XII runs on 4 and 5 December with 16 bands around Bölzer, Panzerfaust and Schammasch; in the Bernese Oberland, Metal Marmot brings Graveworm and Freedom Call.

And then it gets festive — in a very German way. Two Christmas Metal Meetings share a name and have nothing to do with each other: on 19 December, Earaser, Scapegoat Ltd., Falling Bricks and Toxology play the Haus am Alsberg in Rennerod; on 27 December, Stagehands from Hell, InVertigo and Brunhilde fill the Lanfer-Halle in Meppen. At Meppen's JAM, the Markus12 Festival also runs on 11 December as the traditional end-of-year send-off — free entry.

On 19 December, Punk im Pott fills Oberhausen's Turbinenhalle with Dubioza Kolektiv and The Exploited. And if Christmas Day feels too contemplative, head to Chemnitz: Dark Storm Festival runs on 25 December with Hocico and Empathy Test.

And the Other 235?

These are the headlines. The real wealth of these months sits in the small dates: the club cellar with four bands, the youth centre that packs the room once a year, the benefit festival whose entire profit gets donated.

You'll find all 283 in the festival section — filterable by date, radius and genre. And if something's missing: a tip through the app is enough, and we check every suggestion at the source.