MS DOCKVILLE

MS DOCKVILLE is the indie, pop and hip hop weekend of Kopf & Steine in the port of Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, on the Elbe island. MS, in the island paper, is the abbreviation of Motorschiff. The ground is at Schlengendeich 12, 21107. The info page says the S-Bahn leaves you about ten minutes from the main station and that the weekend joins music, art, readings and workshops, with about a hundred acts on ten stages. The Wilhelmsburger Inselrundblick, on 2 September 2026, says it started in 2007 as a small city festival. Eike Eberhardt, the spokesperson, tells NDR on 17 August 2025 that they have just turned 18. If 2007 is the first summer, 2025 is the nineteenth gathering and the age Eberhardt states is 18. The site calls a later August the 20th birthday, with no programme yet. The three counts are not smoothed.

The weekend the reviews walk is Friday 14 and Saturday 15 August 2026. The island paper puts about 35 degrees on the Friday. Tanja, in Concert News on 18 August, calls the shade the secret headliner, and the cold drink the currency of the day. The organisers tell NDR, on Sunday the 16th, that 40,000 people came across the two days. Radio Hamburg, on the 17th, says more than 40,000. More than a hundred acts on ten stages. The ground moved: Butterland grew and the Vorschot left the middle of the path and shifted into the heart of the site. At Von Wegen Lisbeth and at Bibiza, anyone who got in stayed in. The wander toward Artville slowed.

On Friday, Paula Hartmann comes on unannounced, the last artist of the night on the Großschot, and in a short set announces a new record. The island paper and Concert News both tell it. Berq, who years earlier fitted on the small Butterland stage, is now on the Großschot: the same voice, a larger stage. The Nest stays close. Holly North sounds dark and hypnotic. CAY and the podcast Mord auf Ex fit there too. Siegfried & Joy open an area and Tanja calls it a fever dream.

On Saturday, Tom Odell holds the stage between precision and chaos, seconds apart. Berq joins him on Heal. Wolf Alice leaves an angular force. The photo report says the sun drops behind the stage during that set. Paris Paloma sounds dark and intense. nand brings a trumpet, between sync and pop. Noga Erez, for Tim Gafron, music director at Radio Hamburg, thinks the music from the body: offbeat, R&B and electropop. The island paper says Odell did not draw as many people as hoped, and names Mariybu and Paris Paloma inside a weekend set in a feminist key. That is their reading, beside the heat and the two nights.

The 2025 contrast stays labelled. NDR, on 17 August 2025, counts about 25,000 a day, two days rather than four, in the festival's 18th year. Raye and The Last Dinner Party headline, with Lola Young. There is Rave Aerobic in the circus tent. Eberhardt speaks of a booking that represents the FLINTA community and of cut-price tickets for people who live in Wilhelmsburg. Radio Q puts 15 and 16 August, about 50,000 people in all, and says two days rather than three. The three and the four do not match. The Vogelball, from the same promoter, closes then. In 2026 the NDR figure is 40,000 for the whole weekend, not 25,000 each day. The island paper says that, since the summer before, it is two days rather than three, and remembers Billie Eilish in 2019 as the example of a world star who did pass through the port. Those names are not on the August 2026 bill.

The info page, written toward the birthday that has not been walked, leaves the way in. S3 or S5 to Wilhelmsburg, footbridge, Neuenfelder Straße, Mengestraße, Georg-Wilhelm-Straße, Wilmansstraße and the white bridge of the Veringkanal. The Reiherstieg-Hauptdeich does not lead in. There is no car park. The car drop-off is at Schluisgrove. The return bus, Friday and Saturday, runs from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Under-12s do not enter. From 12 to 15, with a responsible adult. From 16, until midnight, without a companion. Camping opens on Friday at 10 a.m. and closes on Sunday at 4 p.m. No glass, no confetti, no large sound systems and no generators. The gas cartridge, up to 450 grams. The 5-euro deposit comes back only with the chip and a full bag. Free showers and ceramic toilets. The grill, only at the marked spots. The camping breakfast is vegan. In the shop, the single ticket is 129 euros and the group ticket 119, with re-entry and a name on it. The FAQ still speaks of neighbourhood tickets for the Habitat Festival, at Reisebüro Smarttraveling on Veringstraße 52, for postcodes 21107, 21109 and 20539. That is the sentence on the page. The press writes to presse@dockville.de. Lost things, afterwards, go to the Fundbüro in Hamburg-Altona.