On Wednesday September 17th, 2025, the 20th anniversary edition of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival started. Four days filled with conferences, award shows, and amazing live performances in the city’s concert venues and clubs. Its Opening Show happened at the Operettenhaus with acts such as Calum Scott and Florence Road.
Our first act of the evening was Sofie Royer at the Docks venue. Her set was filmed for ARTE (German and French broadcast channel). Royer sang, played the keyboard and a violin! Her band left the audience clapping after songs while the faces in the front row were smiling.
Next was Lisl at the Spielbude XL, a free show and part of a showcase of Bavarian artists. Fans in the front row especially vibed along during her set and one even made a sign. A small group of people noticeably danced along to support her! Applause accompanied her set. She thanked the Reeperbahn Festival on stage.
Prior to Alessi Rose’s show at the Grosse Freiheit 36 later on the day, her guitarist Tom Gledhill and her did a short acoustic performance at N-Joy’s (a radio station in northern Germany). Fans sang along and she even got a present during it.
Hamburg-born artist Friso had the audience paying full attention during his set at the 25 Club! At the same time, Molotow was packed during The Pill’s set, the band super energetic on stage and the crowd caught right up, and Australian artist Divebar Youth played a free outdoor set. People gathered before the Fritz-Kola stage, those walking past kept pausing to see who was playing.
Earlier in the day, Nina Chuba was announced to be playing a surprise set on the Amazon Music Stage. Which was also outside and free! The huge crowd went wild and was truly present during her mind-blowing set. Confetti filled the sky above the show during the first and last song of her set, and during the song ‘RAGE GIRL’ fire underlined the song. It was the artist’s last performance before her album Ich lieb mich, Ich lieb mich nicht would be released.
As previously mentioned, in addition to her acoustic performance earlier on the day, Alessi Rose did a show at the Grosse Freiheit 36, which was part of Universal Music’s own Ignite showcase. Her set marked super passionate fans, with one‘s sign reading “can we just stay in your world?”’. She looked happy on stage, expressing her feelings by saying “love being in Hamburg, thanks for showing up” and she expressed gratitude that fans bought merch.
Overpass gathered a packed room at BETTY and had people vibing along. Mere minutes later, Ellie Dixon took to the stage at Stage 15 with a sword in hand, which she later on knighted a fan with. During their set, she covered ‘Crazy In Love’ by Beyoncé (ft. JAY-Z). Dixon talked about how the EP Tales of a Knight is an independent release. They also mentioned ‘The Knight Club Tour’, which their performance at RBF 2025 was a part of, being completely self-funded.
Our first day at the festival ended with the female-fronted German band Power Plush. The band recently released their album Love Language. Visibly happy to be on stage, they had the crowd vibing along even at the late hour. Before the song ‘Girl, He Toxic’, Anja (vocalist and bassist) talked about self-acceptance and to make sure to let good people in one’s life. The band made sure to let people know they’d talk to fans after their set. Check out all the photos here!
