The next Die Blaue Nacht | The Blue Night, the grand long night of art and culture featuring more than 50 Nuremberg museums and cultural institutions — along with the traditional large-scale projection onto the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg — will take place on Saturday, April 24, 2027.
The international art competition, showcasing art in unusual locations such as courtyards, a factory site, and gardens, starts with the preview on Friday, April 23, 2027, as a taster for the following night.
Open Call "So Close to the Sun" - open for artist applications until 31 July 2026
Looking Back: The Blue Night | Die Blaue Nacht 2025
Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, Die Blaue Nacht | The Blue Night on 17 May 2025 had the theme "Love and Peace", drawing inspiration from the vivid spirit of the hippie era and its call for world peace and new democratic movements. Once again, Die Blaue Nacht | The Blue Night 2025 featured more than fifity cultural institutions, offering a rich and participatory programme that reflects the remarkable diversity of the city's cultural life.
110,000 visitors strolled through the blue-lit old town, posed for photographs beneath a canopy of colourful umbrellas at the wine market, explored Abie Franklin's and Daniel Hölzls's the three-metre-high aerial sculptures BYCATCH at the main market, and enjoyed the large-scale projection by Holger Felten and Rose Pistola onto the Imperial Castle, titled "hdgdl".
In 2000, the year after Nuremberg’s 950th anniversary, the first Blue Night | Die Blaue Nacht invited Nuremberg citizens to see and experience art and culture in an unusual setting and at an unusual time of day. Since then, Die Blaue Nacht has become an outstandig long night of art and culture, with over100,000 visitors annually, coming from Nuremberg, the surrounding region, the entire Federal Republic and abroad. On offer are more than 200 programme presentations in over 50 institutions, courtyards, on squares and in the streets of Nuremberg’s Old Town. Over 40 culture sites open their doors for exhibitions, concerts, readings, activities to join, light art shows – something for everybody, big and small.
The Blue Night art competition
Since 2005, The Blue Night | Die Blaue Nacht has offered artists the opportunity to present their works to a larger public for two nights in the participating institutions, in courtyards, in enclosed public spaces, and on squares and streets in Nuremberg’s inner city. These works have been in a variety of media including light and sound installations, performances, participative activities and new media.