Westwind Festival 2026 – 42nd Theatre Meeting for Young Audiences NRW

The WESTWIND festival is one of Germany's most renowned theatre festivals for young audiences and each year is hosted by a different theatre in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). This edition of the festival will take advantage of synergies between civic institutions and the independent scene: the cooperating partners organising this festival are the Junges Theater Münster and the independent theatre company, echtzeit-theater. 

Alongside a selection of NRW-based productions from the festival competition, the programme includes international touring performances, post-show discussions, specialist forums, panels, and workshops. In this way, an international dialogue will be set up to debate how diverse strategies are tracked when working for and with young people, what communication and participation structures are available for this, and to what extent theatre-based projects represent alternative spaces and practices of political socialisation for children and young people.

In addition to attending the festival, the programme also includes in-depth conversations with the organisers and artists from WESTWIND 2026. Furthermore, there will be meetings and on-site visits with other experts from the field of children's and youth theatre in North Rhine-Westphalia.