The Ruhrtriennale is the festival of the arts in the Ruhr region. Every summer, the festival transforms impressive industrial architecture – former machine halls, coking plants and power stations – into stages for extraordinary productions. Here, music theater, drama, dance, performance, concerts and visual arts meet in spaces full of history and create new, surprising connections. International artists create a program that explores boundaries and opens up new perspectives.

The Ruhrtriennale is one of four independent programmes of the Kultur Ruhr GmbH and was founded in 2002 to utilise the disused collieries and industrial halls for new forms of artistic exploration. The artistic directorship changes every three years and with it the festival's programme. Artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale 2024-2026 is Belgian theater director Ivo Van Hove.

The 2025 season will take place from 21 August to 21 September.

In ourfestival archive you can delve into the long history of the Ruhrtriennale and discover the programmes of the artistic directors from 2002–2023 on the websites of past festival editions.