The city of Tittmoning will not be hosting the 2026 State Garden Show. The city council decided this unanimously on Tuesday evening, as Mayor Andreas Bratzdrum said on Wednesday.
According to Martin Richter-Liebald, managing director of Bayerische Landesgartenschau GmbH, it is still unclear whether there will even be a state horticultural show in 2026. A final decision on this has not yet been made. However, the time to look for a new venue and create and implement a concept would now be short.
According to Bratzdrum, the reason for Tittmoning’s withdrawal was a citizens’ initiative sought by a citizens’ initiative, which should lead to a referendum on the state horticultural show. This would result in a lot of time being lost. Contracts were advertised at the end of December and applications have now been received. The orders must be awarded now.
The mayor told the German Press Agency that he was “totally disappointed”. The city is wasting an “incredible opportunity.” In the next two years, numerous projects would have been implemented with the help of funding. The cancellation would be damaging for urban development as well as for retail and gastronomy.
Tittmoning had applied for a state horticultural show in 2030 or 2031 and stepped in at short notice as the venue for 2026 after Schweinfurt returned the contract. The city council initially approved the application by a majority in December 2023 after revising the application concept and further citizen information – and Tittmoning was awarded the contract.
In 2023 the State Garden Show took place in Freyung in the Bavarian Forest, in 2024 the event will take place in Kirchheim near Munich and in 2025 Furth im Wald (Cham district) will be the venue. The first state horticultural show in Bavaria took place in Neu-Ulm in 1980, and the anniversary edition in 2030 is planned for Nuremberg.