Libori is Paderborn's great annual celebration, held every year in late July for nine days. The festival combines a formal church procession through the old town — with the reliquary of St. Liborius carried in state — with a sprawling funfair, food stalls, and a great deal of beer from the Paderborner Brauerei. The carnival atmosphere takes over the entire city centre.
The festival draws around a million visitors over its nine days, which is remarkable for a city of 100,000. If you are passing through Paderborn in late July, you will find hotels full and the old town transformed. The procession itself is worth watching for the pageantry — bishops, clergy, and civic dignitaries processing past the cathedral in traditional style. The rest is a thoroughly secular German street party.