Deep Purple at Klosterhof Wiblingen: hard rock beneath a Baroque façade
Deep Purple performs at Klosterhof Wiblingen in Ulm on June 28, 2026, starting at 19:00, as part of the "Mad In Europe 2026" tour cycle. This is a concert that does not rely only on nostalgia. It relies on a rare combination: a band whose sound helped shape hard rock, a new career phase marked by the album "SPLAT!" and the open courtyard of a Baroque monastery complex, which gives a rock concert a different geometry from an arena or a club.
For an audience coming for the riffs, the Hammond sound, the drumming drive and Ian Gillan's vocal charisma, Ulm-Wiblingen is one of those summer dates that naturally fits into a travel plan. For visitors who know Deep Purple primarily through "Smoke on the Water", "Highway Star" or "Black Night", the concert offers an encounter with a band that is still working on new material, not only maintaining a catalogue.
Ticket sales for this event are in progress.
Why this performance matters in the band's current phase
Deep Purple was formed in 1968 and holds a place in rock history as a band that combined blues, a classical sense of drama, progressive forms and hard energy. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Deep Purple in 2016, describing the band as an act that helped pave the way for heavy metal through distinctive riffs and the high intensity of its playing.
Today's line-up consists of Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Don Airey and Simon McBride. It is a formation in which the voice, bass and drums from the core of the classic Deep Purple story are still on stage, while McBride brings new sharpness on guitar. Don Airey, a long-time master of keyboards, preserves an important dimension of the band: Deep Purple was never only guitar-based hard rock, but also a collision of guitar and organ, rhythm and improvisational space.
The current context is given by the album "SPLAT!", announced for July 3, 2026 on earMUSIC. The band presents it as a new studio chapter, again with producer Bob Ezrin, while Ian Gillan links it to an energy that leans on the spirit of the band's early-seventies phase. The first material from the album, "Arrogant Boy" and "Diablo", shows that Deep Purple is entering 2026 not only as a rock institution, but as a band that wants new riffs to stand alongside old favourites.
It is important not to turn expectation into an invented set list. The repertoire for Ulm has not been published as a finished list of songs. Still, the announcement of the concert in Ulm highlights a catalogue in which "Smoke on the Water", "Highway Star", "Child in Time", "Strange Kind of Woman", "Black Night" and "Woman From Tokyo" are part of the core by which the audience recognises the band. In addition, the current touring phase and the new album open up space for newer material, but without a guarantee of which songs will be played specifically at Klosterhof.
The sound the audience can expect
Deep Purple live rests on the tension between precision and freedom. Their best-known songs are not built as smooth radio pop, but as pieces of rock architecture: the riff opens the door, the rhythm raises the temperature, the keyboards widen the space, and the vocal enters both as narrator and as an additional instrument. That is why the concert can be attractive both to an audience that knows every transition on "Machine Head" and to visitors who want to hear how one of the foundational hard rock bands sounds in today's line-up.
Ian Paice and Roger Glover provide rhythmic stability without which Deep Purple would not have the same impact, Don Airey preserves the keyboard breadth, and Simon McBride on guitar has a demanding task: to stand inside songs whose riffs are part of general rock memory, while not sounding like a copy of the past. It is precisely this combination that makes this concert interesting. The audience is not coming only to hear canonical compositions, but also a line-up performing them in the present moment.
Tickets for this event are in demand.
Klosterhof Wiblingen as an open rock stage
Kloster Wiblingen is located in the Ulm-Wiblingen district, at Schlossstraße 38. The complex is a former Benedictine monastery, founded in 1093, and it received its present Baroque appearance through a major intervention that began in 1714. The monastery library is considered one of the striking examples of Rococo architecture, while the church and the wings of the complex form a monumental frame for a visit before the concert or during a stay in the city.
For the concert, the key place is Klosterhof, the courtyard of the complex, which turns into an open-air space at the end of June. From June 26 to 28, 2026, three concert evenings are announced at Klosterhof with the performers Wincent Weiss, Montez and Deep Purple. In this way, Deep Purple closes the weekend programme in a space where pop and rock meet Baroque façades, courtyard symmetry and the open sky.
A space like this changes the way of listening. In an indoor hall, the sound relies on the roof, walls and acoustic treatment. At Klosterhof, the experience depends on open-air production, the arrangement of the audience and summer conditions. The advantage is a feeling of breadth and visual contrast: electric hard rock in the courtyard of an old monastery complex, with architecture that is not scenery built for a tour, but a real part of the city and its history.
Basic information for visitors
- Event: Deep Purple - "Mad In Europe 2026"
- Venue: Klosterhof Wiblingen, Kloster Wiblingen, Schlossstraße 38, 89079 Ulm-Wiblingen
- Start time: 19:00
- Format: open-air concert in a monastery courtyard
- Ticket validity: the ticket is valid for the day of the concert
- Confirmed performer: Deep Purple; additional guests or support acts for this performance are not listed in the announcements used
Audience: who will find the concert especially interesting
This is a concert for several types of audience at once. The first are long-time fans who have followed Deep Purple through different line-ups, albums and eras. The second are lovers of hard rock and classic rock who may not have grown up with Deep Purple, but know well how much their language influenced later bands. For both groups, the same thing matters: "Highway Star" or "Smoke on the Water" are not museum pieces when performed by a band that still travels, records and enters new touring cycles.
The third are visitors who choose the concert because of the venue. Klosterhof Wiblingen can also attract people for whom the ambience, the journey and a full-day stay in the city matter. Such a visit can begin with a walk through Ulm, a short trip to Wiblingen, a tour of the monastery complex when time allows, and end with an evening rock concert.
Getting to Ulm-Wiblingen and moving around the venue
Kloster Wiblingen is located approximately 5 kilometres from the centre of Ulm. For visitors arriving by train or staying in the city, public transport is a practical option. Information from the complex indicates arrival by line 4 from the Ehinger Tor stop to the Kloster Wiblingen stop. Other visitor information materials also mention the Pranger stop, so before departure it is worth checking the current timetable and choosing a route according to the point of departure in Ulm.
For arrival by car, 100 public parking spaces for passenger cars are listed within walking distance of the complex, as well as three spaces for buses or camper vans. Since this is a concert evening, arriving earlier can reduce stress around parking and entry. This is especially important for travellers who do not know the Wiblingen district or plan to combine the concert with sightseeing.
Ulm is a city on the Danube, with a historic centre, old little streets and Ulmer Münster as the city's most recognisable point. For international visitors, the advantage is that the concert is not held in an isolated festival field, but in an urban zone to which arrival can be planned by public transport, taxi or car, with a return toward the centre after the concert.
How to plan the concert day
The concert is best treated as the evening highlight, not as the only point of the day. Since the performance begins at 19:00, visitors coming from other cities can arrive in Ulm earlier, leave enough time for accommodation or lunch, and then head toward Wiblingen without rushing. Summer open-air concerts have a different rhythm from indoor concerts: the audience gathers earlier, the space fills gradually, and weather conditions can affect the feeling of comfort.
It is practical to bring what is allowed by the organisation's rules on the day of the concert, but without assumptions about bringing in food, drinks, large bags or professional equipment. Such rules can depend on production and the security plan, so they are worth checking shortly before departure. What is certain for planning is the address, the open-air format and the 19:00 start.
It is worth securing tickets in time.
What to check before departure
- Timetable: public transport toward Wiblingen, especially the return after the concert.
- Weather forecast: an open-air space means clothing should be adapted to the evening temperature and possible rain.
- Entry rules: permitted bag dimensions, bringing in items and any security instructions.
- Arrival time: earlier arrival helps with parking, orientation and entry into the space.
- Plan after the concert: the return toward the centre of Ulm or accommodation is better planned before the performance begins.
What makes this concert different from an arena performance
Deep Purple in an arena often sounds like a rock machine: the focus is on the stage, the light, the crowd and the distance between the front rows and the highest stands. Klosterhof Wiblingen offers a different logic. The concert takes place within a space that has its own history, its own proportions and architecture that remains present even when the lights are directed toward the stage.
This is especially interesting for a band such as Deep Purple. Their music often has a dramatic arc: an introduction that grows, a solo that expands the song, a finale that does not close immediately but breathes. In a Baroque courtyard, that feeling can gain additional visual weight. Not because of effects that have not been announced, but because of the space itself: hard rock riffs opposite façades, the audience under the summer sky, the sound of keyboards in an open courtyard.
Musical context: between the catalogue and the new album
"Mad In Europe 2026" comes at a moment when Deep Purple is again directing attention toward a new studio release. "SPLAT!" comes out a few days after the concert in Ulm, which gives this performance an interesting position: the audience comes to the concert immediately before the album release, in a period when "Arrogant Boy" and "Diablo" are already available as an introduction to the new chapter.
"Diablo" has been announced as a classic Deep Purple rocker built on a riff, groove and the band's chemistry in the studio, with guest guitar by Keith Urban on the recording. That does not mean that this guest is expected at the concert in Ulm. The difference between a studio release and a concert line-up must remain clear. But the song itself shows how the band communicates its current aesthetic: movement, impact, collective playing and the feeling that the song emerges from the interaction of musicians, not from a cold production scheme, still matter.
The monastery complex is not only a concert address. The library, the museum in the convent building and the Church of St Martin are part of Wiblingen's cultural picture. Anyone arriving earlier should check opening hours for visits, because the concert regime and regular visits do not necessarily have the same schedule. Still, the very arrival in the space shows why Klosterhof is used for summer performances: the courtyard has enough monumentality to give the concert a frame, but also enough openness for rock not to seem like an intruder.
Before departure, it is worth combining the musical and practical plan: check the weather, transport and entry rules, arrive early enough and leave room for what keeps Deep Purple attracting several generations - the moment when a familiar riff rises above the audience, and the band's history stops being a fact and becomes sound in space.
Sources:
- Deep Purple - biographical information about the band, current line-up, the "Mad In Europe 2026" tour, the album "SPLAT!" and the singles "Arrogant Boy" and "Diablo".
- Stadt Ulm - information about the concert in Ulm-Wiblingen, the date, venue and listed classics by the band.
- Kloster Wiblingen - information about the Open Airs series from June 26 to 28, 2026, the Baroque context of Klosterhof, the address, arrival by public transport and parking.
- Ulm/Neu-Ulm Tourism - information about the position of Wiblingen Monastery in relation to the centre of Ulm and the city's tourism context.
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - context of the band's influence and Deep Purple's induction in 2016.