TT Festival Assen

For nine days in June, Assen is anything but ordinary. The TT Festival takes over the city centre with stages, a fairground and motorcycle parades. The occasion is the TT race — the world’s oldest MotoGP race, first run in 1925. More than 250,000 visitors over nine days, all with free entry.

✅ Free admission — the TT Festival is completely free. No ticket needed for any of the performances or events.

Free entry — the entire TT Festival is freely accessible.

How it started

The TT Festival has existed since 1975. It has grown into a city festival with eight stages, a large fairground, motorcycle shows and a beer route along twenty cafés.

What you’ll find

Music on eight stages

Stages spread throughout the centre, with programming from Dutch pop to dance and cover bands.

TT NightRide

On the Friday before the race, hundreds of motorcycles roar through the city centre — loud, smelling of petrol, and exactly why fans travel to Assen.

TT Beer Route

At twenty cafés you can collect beer mats with vintage TT posters — one of the festival’s most beloved traditions.

Action on Wheels and the fairground

For visitors who’d rather watch than listen, the Action on Wheels Arena runs trial shows, stunt performances and an inevitable lawnmower race, while the fairground on Veemarktplein packs in more than forty rides for anyone chasing an adrenaline fix. TT Laan, meanwhile, is where the younger crowd gathers, with merchandise stalls, activities and the “laddertje” — a small yearly tradition that’s become a fixture in its own right.

More than a motorsport festival

What sets TT Festival apart from other Dutch city festivals is exactly that combination of motorsport heritage and a broadly accessible music festival. It isn’t purely a party for bike enthusiasts, and it isn’t purely a music festival with a motorsport theme — it’s both at once, and that’s what makes the atmosphere in Assen unmatched for nine days each year.

Assen hosted the very first TT race back in 1925 — the winner, Piet van Wijngaarden, covered the sandy roads of Drenthe at an average of 91 kilometres per hour, a number that sounds almost unbelievable a century later.

The programme spans eight stages across the city centre, from the main stage on the Vaart to a youth stage on TT Laan, with genres ranging from Dutch pop and party music to dance and covers — in 2025 the bill included names like Donnie, Bizzey, Rowwen Hèze and Russo.

For anyone who wants motorsport and a full-scale city festival in the same weekend, TT Festival is one of the few places in the Netherlands where that combination — entirely free of charge — actually works.

There is also a hidden gem worth seeking out: the TT Beer Route, where visitors collect vintage-poster beer mats from twenty cafés across Assen throughout June — a small tradition, but one regulars rate among their favourite parts of the whole event.

Practical info

• • Date 2026: 19–27 June
• • Entry: free
• • Getting there: Assen station is walking distance from the festival
• • Programme: ttfestival.nl