What is on in Munich at the weekend if you are not going to the Wiesn?

Ask what is on in Munich at the weekend and most listings answer with the Wiesn first, when it is in season. What gets lost are the recurring events alongside it, and the museums that happen to be closed on your free day.

This page collects both: the events that shape Munich beyond the Wiesn, and the traps that appear when a weekend is planned too tightly.

Which recurring events are there besides the Wiesn?

• Auer Dult: a traditional fair with pottery, household goods and bric-a-brac, held three times a year on Mariahilfplatz, each time for around a week. It runs alongside many other events, but the big Wiesn listings rarely mention it.
• Superbloom: a music festival in the Olympiapark, usually in early summer, with several thousand visitors over a weekend.
• Kocherlball: a traditional early-morning dance in the English Garden, on a Sunday morning in summer, free and with no registration.
• Munich Marathon: closes several central streets on its weekend, which changes walking routes and bus connections in the centre.

These four events fall in different seasons, and none reliably overlaps with the Wiesn. If you are looking in autumn, you will usually find only the Wiesn and the Auer Dult on the programme.

Photo: Heribert Pohl --- Thanks for half a million clicks! from Germering bei München, , CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which museums are closed just when you want to go?

The mistake that most often wrecks weekend plans: assuming a museum is open every day. Several Munich museums close on one of the two weekend days, or follow a pattern that does not match "weekend means open".

• The Munich City Museum (Münchner Stadtmuseum), by contrast, is open on both weekend days: it opens Tuesday to Sunday, and its closing day is Monday.
• The Palaeontological Museum Munich opens on weekdays, and at weekends only on the first Sunday of the month.
• Several major museums, including the Alte Pinakothek, follow the common pattern with Monday as their closing day.

The city's tourist information office at the Alter Hof is itself open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm and closed on Sundays and public holidays, which matters for last-minute questions at the weekend. Before any museum visit, check the museum's own website, because the patterns differ.

What can you combine on foot at the weekend, and what not?

The centre itself is easy to walk over short distances. The Olympiapark or Nymphenburg, on the other hand, almost always need public transport, even if the map makes them look close.

Photo: Felix Edelmann, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

What can you do in the rain, away from the Wiesn?

Museums and the Residenz remain the most reliable option. The Viktualienmarkt, by contrast, is an open-air market and only works for a quick shop in the rain. A Kocherlball or a concert in the Olympiapark, on the other hand, is often rained off in heavy rain, and no central source collects cancellations: they only appear on each organiser's own channel.

If you want a weekend that does not depend on the weather at all, combine a museum (after checking its closing day) with the Residenz, rather than relying on an open-air event.

What information is missing for a weekend outside the Wiesn?

• A central events calendar. The Auer Dult, Superbloom and the Kocherlball are listed on different sites; there is no single list with all three.
• Weather cancellations. Each organiser announces them itself, usually at short notice.
• A complete list of museum closing days. Every museum publishes its own hours, with no central overview for all Munich museums together.

These gaps are named here rather than filled with invented dates.

Further reading

For a weekend plan with the Wiesn at its centre: a weekend in Munich, with real walking times. For the time budget of the Wiesn blocks themselves: events in Munich this weekend.

What else is worth it in the city: what to do in Munich. For the routes in between: Munich city map.

Sources

Sources: official websites of the Munich museums (opening hours and closing days), the City of Munich portal and local press (Abendzeitung, tz, Süddeutsche Zeitung) for recurring events, map services for distances. Walking times including stops are editorial estimates from our research notes, and are marked as such.

Research as of 12 September 2026. The sources consulted contain no central, complete calendar for the Auer Dult, Superbloom and the Kocherlball, only the organisers' individual pages.