• The 13th edition of Haferland Week, the most beloved cultural and ethnographic festival of the Transylvanian Saxons, will take place this year from 31 July to 3 August.
• An estimated 10,000 visitors are expected to attend the events organised over the four days of the festival.
• The event will take place across ten localities in Haferland (the “Oatland”): Archita, Saschiz, Homorod, Rupea, Criț, Roadeș, Meșendorf, Cloașterf, Bunești and Viscri.
• Over the four days, visitors will be able to take part in around 70 events, including performances for adults and children, traditional brass band concerts, organ recitals and jazz performances, conferences, hiking and guided tours, workshops and exhibitions.
• For the second consecutive year, the festival will host an adventure and non-formal education camp for young people and teenagers, in partnership with The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, a global organisation founded in the United Kingdom.

Bucharest, 28 May 2025. The 13th edition of Haferland Week, the most beloved cultural and ethnographic festival of the Transylvanian Saxons, will take place this year from 31 July to 3 August, with approximately 10,000 visitors expected from Romania, the European Union, the Middle East and North America.

As in previous years, the festival will be held across ten localities in Haferland (the “Oatland,” the German name of the region located between Sibiu, Brașov and Sighișoara), which have become traditional hosts of the events organised within the festival: Archita, Saschiz, Homorod, Rupea, Criț, Roadeș, Meșendorf, Cloașterf, Bunești and Viscri.

Over the four days of the festival, visitors will be able to attend approximately 50 events, including concerts, theatre performances for adults and children, traditional dance shows, conferences, guided tours, tastings, craft workshops and exhibitions, among others.

Among the festival’s established highlights are performances by traditional Saxon brass bands, folk dance presentations, concerts of sacred music, baroque music and jazz, as well as the traditional Saxon Ball. This year, the ball will take place on the esplanade of Rupea Fortress, a venue that is both spacious and spectacular, offering a unique view over the surrounding area.

Also among the most anticipated events is the hike to the Saschiz refuge fortress, which is nearly 700 years old, including a guided tour of the site followed by a cultural picnic. The fortified church in the village is one of the two religious sites in Haferland included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, alongside the fortified church in Viscri.

Another unique event—the first of its kind to take place within Haferland Week—is the “Lole Parade” from Agnita, an old medieval craft guild tradition of the Transylvanian Saxons. The custom marked the handing over of the guild chest to the new leader of each craftsmen’s guild. The ceremony took place at the end of a guild procession, accompanied by journeymen wearing masks known as “Lole”, armed with whips. Likely originating in ancient agrarian rituals, the role of the Lole figures was to drive away evil spirits by cracking their whips.

After 1990, when the mass emigration of the Saxons from Agnita began, the tradition disappeared and was only revived in 2006. The Lole Parade has very rarely been presented outside Agnita.

Haferland Week, a Driver of Economic, Social and Cultural Development in the Region

To date, over its 13 years of existence, Haferland Week has attracted more than 50,000 visitors, including members of the Transylvanian Saxon diaspora in Germany, Austria and North America, the Saxon community in Romania, as well as Romanian visitors drawn to the beauty of the Saxon villages in southern Transylvania. They are joined by visitors from Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Israel, the United States and other countries.

“Since its inception, Haferland Week has become one of the best-known summer cultural events, serving as an opportunity for reunion between the Transylvanian Saxons who emigrated and those who remained in their ancestral homeland, while also promoting values such as diversity, tolerance, cultural openness and economic cooperation,” said Mr Michael Schmidt, President of the M&V Schmidt Foundation, the festival’s organiser.

“This achievement also belongs equally to Mr Peter Maffay, originally from Brașov and one of Germany’s great musicians, with whom I share a long-standing and enduring friendship. Mr Maffay is a co-initiator of Haferland Week through the Tabaluga Foundation, a humanitarian organisation he established many years ago.”

Haferland Week plays a key role in raising awareness of the importance of the tangible and intangible heritage of the Saxons in Haferland, a community that has lived here continuously for more than eight centuries. Its unique secular and religious architecture—including fortified places of worship built both for the spiritual needs of the community and for defence purposes—together with the language and traditions of its inhabitants, represent a unique heritage in Europe of a German-speaking community that has built a distinctive rural civilisation in southern Transylvania.

The festival also continues to be a key driver of tourism, economic and social development in the Oatland region, a predominantly agricultural area with a harsh climate, where the event supports local initiatives in cultural tourism, ecological tourism and adventure tourism along the Via Transilvanica.

Youth Haferland: A Unique Experience for Young People, in Partnership with The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Romania

Thanks to the partnership established last year between the M&V Schmidt Foundation and The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Romania, the festival now includes a dedicated programme for young audiences: the Youth Haferland initiative, an educational and adventure camp designed to build bridges between young people, communities and cultural heritage, with an emphasis on civic engagement and identity.

Delivered globally, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award provides international recognition and a structured framework of non-formal education activities for young people aged 14 to 24. At international level, the programme is patronised by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, while at national level it is patronised by Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown.

The 13th edition of Haferland Week is funded by the Ministry of Culture, in partnership with CEC Bank, Geiger, Aqua Carpatica, Domeniile Sâmburești, Automobile Bavaria, and MHS Truck & Bus.

Media partner: KISS FM

The festival co-organisers, the M&V Schmidt Foundation and the Tabaluga / Peter Maffay Foundation (Peter Maffay Stiftung), are supported by partners including the Democratic Forum of Germans in Transylvania, the Association of Transylvanian Saxons in Germany, the Evangelical Church A.C. in Romania, through the Brașov District Consistory of the Evangelical Church A.C., the Cultural Centre of the Transylvanian Saxons in Bavaria, the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum in Bucharest, the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation, the ADEPT Transilvania Foundation, the Nowero Association, the Rupea Town Hall, the Discover Archita Association, the Vânători Commune Town Hall (Mureș County), the Saschiz Commune Town Hall (Mureș County), the Women’s Neighbourhood Association of Saschiz, and the Bunești Commune Town Hall (Brașov County).