Ivo Van Hove bids farewell to the Ruhrtriennale

The Ruhrtriennale 2026 came to a close yesterday evening. With more than 109,000 visitors, we can look back on a very successful festival season. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our audience, our artists, partners, sponsors, friends and everyone who made this edition of the Ruhrtriennale possible!

Ruhrtriennale Artistic Director Ivo Van Hove: “I am delighted by this great success and that the audience enjoyed my three editions of the Ruhrtriennale. This is also evident from the consistently high visitor numbers across all three years. I myself have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. As an artist, I have always been interested in bringing different artistic disciplines together. At the Ruhrtriennale, I was able to put this into practice – with a great deal of artistic freedom and with the support of my team, our funders and the people of the region. A festival only truly comes to life when people come, listen, watch, question, disagree and return. I believe we have achieved that.”

The Ruhrtriennale 2026 ended on 20 September. This year’s festival featured a total of 30 productions and projects, with 120 events taking place in Bochum, Duisburg, Dortmund, Essen and Gladbeck,14 of which were in-house and co-productions as well as commissioned works. Around 600 artists from 45 countries took part in the Ruhrtriennale 2026. 

In 2027, Lydia Steier takes over as the new artistic director for the festival editions running until 2029. At the same time, we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Ruhrtriennale. The next Ruhrtriennale will take place in August and September 2027.

A final highlight this year takes place a week after the festival ends: Frieda Lange, winner of the Mortier Next Generation Award, will be presenting Stahlgipfel at the Grillo Theatre in Essen from 25 September. This music theatre is a co-production of the Ruhrtriennale and Schauspiel Essen.

The last pub: a space laden with memories. Five people keep watch here – to prevent it disappearing, to prevent a change that has long since happened. Stahlgipfel is an evening of music theatre conceived by Frieda Lange realised following her being awarded the Mortier Next Generation Award. It is based on stories from the Ruhr region: by former steelworkers and miners, by shop assistants, trade unionists and bar owners. These voices emerge as an echo of a working world whose rituals and losses continue to resonate to this day. What is left when work has gone?
Dates: 25, 26, 30 Sept as well as 11 and 30 Oct 2026