An era is coming to an end at the Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum in 2026. The large music arena is disappearing, and the major bands are leaving. At MPS in Luhmühlen, there was already a sense of farewell in the air. But perhaps the festival isn’t simply losing something. Perhaps it’s also rediscovering something it had lost.
At first, everything at the market feels just as it always has.
The air smells of food and fire. People in elaborate costumes wander between the stalls, and somewhere, another chimney cake is waiting to be eaten. Standing here, looking around, it would be easy to forget that MPS is at a turning point.
There’s everything from rainbow-coloured wedding dresses to Norse deities. In between are people wearing band shirts, families, medieval enthusiasts and visitors without costumes at all. Nobody seems particularly out of place, precisely because everyone is free to stand out. The historical encampments, traders and visitors collectively create a world of their own, one that has room for a remarkable variety of people.
Even the food works surprisingly well for different dietary preferences. Vegetarians and vegans don’t have to spend ages looking for a last-resort option. It’s small details like these that contribute to the atmosphere. Individual pieces that come together to make very different groups of people feel welcome.
Around the large stages, however, things feel different this weekend.
Saying Goodbye on Stage
2026 marks the final MPS season with the large music arena in its current form. From 2027 onwards, organiser Gisbert Hiller intends to move away from expensive arena productions and major bands. Instead, the focus will shift back towards young and emerging bands, bards, bagpipe music, small-scale performances, jousting tournaments and historical encampments. According to the organiser, the decision is driven by the sharp rise in production costs and a desire to keep ticket prices affordable.
In Luhmühlen, the approaching end is impossible to ignore. Almost every major band talks about it, and many express their regret. The farewell is sung about, commented on and occasionally even turned into merchandise. Special items marking the end of the music era appear at the merchandise stalls. A development that’s worth observing with a slightly raised eyebrow. Apparently, if you’re going to say goodbye, you might as well have the matching T-shirt.
The melancholy is particularly noticeable during the performance by Mr. Hurley & die Pulveraffen. For their farewell, they’ve put together a medley of hits by other bands that helped define this era of MPS. On stage, they recall attending the festival as visitors in the early 2000s, when Saltatio Mortis was still a small band performing on a makeshift stage.
The audience sings along at the top of their lungs. The mood is exuberant and, at the same time, strangely melancholic.
It’s one of those moments when you think: What a shame. Something really is coming to an end.
Because, of course, the major bands were never just a side attraction.
A Festival Within a Festival
For me, they were actually one of the main reasons to visit MPS. Here, you could see bands that now fill large concert halls and play major festivals, but in an environment that feels considerably more relaxed than many conventional music festivals.
And at times of day that also work for people who don’t particularly want to wait until midnight for the headliner.
For families in particular, it was an unusual combination: major bands and a festival atmosphere, yet in surroundings where attending a concert didn’t automatically become a major logistical operation.
But the sheer size of the music arena also changed MPS.
When I attended my first MPS in Speyer in 2019, the stages were much more closely integrated into the rest of the event. The market, music, historical encampments and performers felt like parts of the same festival. The music belonged to that world.
Later, when the large music arena was separated from the rest of the grounds, that feeling changed. One festival began to feel almost like two: the market and medieval world on one side, and a music festival with increasingly successful bands on the other.
Bands that may, at some point, have become too big for what MPS originally set out to be.
And that’s the paradox of this farewell. MPS is losing its large music arena. At the same time, the change might bring back together elements that have gradually drifted apart over the years.
“Coming Home”
Esther from Mr. Hurley & die Pulveraffen has experienced both sides of this development.
MPS has always felt more like a family than other festivals, she says. Because many of the same performers, traders and visitors meet again and again at different events, a particular sense of familiarity developed.
“It always felt like coming home.”
That’s why she also sees an opportunity in the new direction.
“Events like these can be a huge opportunity, especially for smaller bands. We experienced that ourselves when we started out at MPS.”
She adds that the medieval scene is particularly welcoming and supportive towards smaller bands.
It’s an aspect that can easily get lost in the discussion about the end of the large music arena. While Spotify and social media can theoretically bring an unknown band to an enormous audience within minutes, something different happens at a festival.
People discover a band without having looked for it.
They walk past a stage, stop for a moment, listen to a second song and perhaps a third. For Esther, an event like this offers a more direct opportunity to get a genuine impression of a band. At the same time, musicians can reach new fans in an environment where the audience is already open to their kind of music.
Bringing the Music Back to the Market
Kupfergold is a good example of how fluid this development can be.
The band is clearly on the verge of taking the next step. In 2026, they performed at Nova Rock and Wacken Open Air, among other events, and their own tour has been announced for 2027. At the same time, Kupfergold is still listed as part of the MPS market programme for 2027.
Perhaps this is where MPS could find its more interesting role in the future: not presenting already established names on the biggest possible stage, but giving bands room to grow.
The organiser is already deliberately experimenting with this return to the festival’s roots. At the so-called Retro MPS, there is no separate music arena. Instead, smaller stages and additional performance areas are placed directly among the visitors. Bards, smaller bands and musicians are once again intended to become part of the market itself.
In other words, the connection that used to feel much more natural at MPS.
Not music over here and the Middle Ages over there.
But both together.
What Do People Actually Come For?
A conversation with a trader in Luhmühlen makes it clear that the large music arena was never at the heart of MPS for everyone. He seems remarkably relaxed about the coming changes.
Without the big bands, he suggests, MPS could return to its roots and become more distinctly medieval again. Fewer visitors would come exclusively to see a particular headliner while having little interest in the market itself.
From his perspective, that wouldn’t be a loss. It would be a kind of return to what matters.
It’s a view that initially contradicts my own. After all, the bands were one of my main reasons for attending.
At the same time, his argument is difficult to dismiss.
Even now, there are very different ways to experience MPS. Some visitors plan their day around concert schedules, while others come for the traders, historical encampments or the medieval atmosphere as a whole. Some spend hours in front of the stage. Others could probably spend an entire weekend on the grounds without seeing a single headliner.
On Sundays, the music often became less important for us, too. That was the time to explore the market, browse the stalls and simply walk around watching people.
Because at MPS, the audience itself is part of the spectacle.
Esther describes it from the stage’s perspective. It’s impressive, she says, to see how much effort some visitors put into their costumes. It shows that “the audience really puts its heart and soul into the event.”
That involvement won’t disappear with the music arena.
The historical encampments will remain. So will the traders and the costumes. The jesters, bards, knights and smaller bands will still be there. Luhmühlen is also back on the MPS calendar for 2027.
What is likely to change is the composition of the audience.
Anyone who came exclusively for Saltatio Mortis, Versengold or another major band will have less reason to make a long journey to MPS in the future. The audience may consequently become more focused on the medieval event itself. More people who come specifically for MPS, and fewer who find themselves at a medieval market primarily because their favourite band happens to be performing next door.
Whether that’s a good thing depends on whom you ask.
Smaller in Scale. But Less MPS?
I’m going to miss the music arena.
Not necessarily because I believe MPS can’t work without it. Quite the opposite. The market in Luhmühlen made it abundantly clear how many elements of the event function perfectly well without the large stage.
What I’ll miss is an opportunity.
The opportunity to experience major bands in surroundings that are more relaxed, more open and more family-friendly than many conventional festivals. Without endless pushing through crowds, without having to organise an entire festival day around a single headliner. And, not entirely unimportant, at times that are pleasant for ordinary mortals, too.
That opportunity is disappearing.
But perhaps, in the end, that’s exactly what the large music arena was: a wonderful opportunity within MPS, but not MPS itself.
Esther needs just two expressions to describe what absolutely must remain:
“The vibe. The family atmosphere.”
Looking around the market in Luhmühlen, it doesn’t feel as though those things will simply disappear in 2027.
Perhaps they’ll even become easier to find again.
