Nightlife
A prime venue for Leipzig visitors looking for night time entertainment and in search of a little nostalgia is Moritzbastei, a youth and student club in the former city bastions extending three storeys underground. The former fortifications next to the University lecture halls were excavated between 1974 and 1976 by students from the University in their spare time and turned into a club. Today, the club comprises several vaults and rooms for a wide range of activities ranging from concerts to exhibitions. In the summer, even the roof is put to use used for theatre performances, concerts and open-air movie shows. Every autumn, Moritzbastei is used as a venue for the Leipzig Jazz Festival, which enjoys an outstanding reputation in the international jazz community.
Leipzig's Market Square is an attractive backdrop for open-air events in the summer. A host of restaurants and bars, each with their own unique atmosphere, contribute to a quickening of the city's cultural pulse during open-air events and concerts like the "Classic Open".
Head south from the city centre and you're bound to find some place just to your liking. Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse offers an attractive array of shops, as well as more than 30 restaurants and bars, including some most popular with the in-crowd.
A little further south is the street junction known as Connewitzer Kreuz, home of Kulturfabrik Werk II operated by the Leipzig City Council and a popular multicultural event centre. The listed, disused factory buildings provide a unique atmosphere for all kinds of events from jazz or rock concerts, to children's revues or dances.
Leipzig's own "theatre district" offers a symbiosis of theatres and fashionable pubs most popular among theatre-goers and the in-crowd.
Rock concerts, discos and other events for the young are held regularly at various clubs and event centres in almost every district of the city.
The Krystallpalast variety theatre is located in the city centre at Magazingasse. The variety theatre's homely, direct atmosphere brings together music, theatre, dance and entertainment, reminiscent of great variety theatre traditions and gives full credit to Leipzig's reputation as a "Little Paris".
Leipzig also offers a broad selection of cabarets and small theatres. The two oldest ones, Pfeffermühle and academixer, have recently been complemented by Leipziger Funzel and SanftWut. Also in the city centre is the Leipziger Brettl, a small theatre staging performances in Café Schloss Wilhelmshöhe and having its own unique atmosphere.
Another popular venue is Schaubühne Lindenfels on Karl-Heine-Strasse, which offers theatre, cinema, cabaret performances, food and drink.
Every year in October, the Lachmesse comedy festival brings German and international comedians and theatre groups to Leipzig. The festival has become the largest international event of its kind.
Later in the same month, documentary and animation film-makers and enthusiasts from all over the world meet up at the International Leipzig Festival of Documentary and Animated Film. Since 1957, the festival has become one of the most renowned of its kind.