Event
If you ever wondered what it would be like to stand trackside at a World Rally Championship event from the 1980s, the Eifel Rallye Festival offers the closest approximation you'll find. Since 2011, this gathering in the volcanic hills around Daun has grown into Europe's largest rolling rally museum, bringing together over 170 original and faithfully replicated competition cars for demonstration runs on properly closed forest stages.
The 2026 edition carries the theme 'To the 60s and back', structuring the starting order to journey through six decades of rally history – beginning with early machinery, reaching the golden sixties at mid-field, then progressing through Group B monsters and beyond to modern WRC cars. The field reads like a motorsport encyclopaedia: two-stroke Saabs and Trabants, works Lancia Stratos and Delta Integrales, Ford Escorts in every evolution, Audi Quattros with their distinctive turbocharged howl, and cars bearing the liveries of Marlboro, Rothmans, Martini and Castrol that defined the sport's visual identity.
Thursday opens with a shakedown stage followed by a welcome evening featuring open-air cinema and the chance to meet drivers in the Rally Mile – Daun's town centre transformed into an accessible paddock where spectators can examine cars and talk with crews. Friday brings scrutineering and further demonstrations, while Saturday delivers the main event: multiple runs through stages like Risselberg and Lehwald, with a new route through the Hillesheimer Land adding variety. The finale unfolds at the rally party with live music on Laurentiusplatz.
What distinguishes this from static museum displays is the commitment to showing these cars in their natural habitat. Nothing is officially timed, but the drivers – including former works pilots and current champions serving as patrons – attack the stages with visible enthusiasm. Daun lies in the Vulkaneifel, roughly an hour from Cologne and Koblenz.
