150+ bands and artists from various backgrounds (gothic rock, EBM, industrial, noise, darkwave, neo-folk, neo-classical and medieval music being examples) play at several venues throughout the city over four days on Whitsuntide.

The festival also features multiple all-night dance club parties, several fairs with medieval, gothic, and related merchandise, a variety of cultural exhibitions and performances, large themed picnics, and a number of unofficial fringe events.

These include special film screenings, club parties, readings of eerie and romantic literature, exhibitions in museums and galleries, live role-playing, church concerts, medieval markets, and workshops on various topics.

Visitors stay in hotels, guesthouses, or use the camping facilities at the main event site, the agra exhibition grounds, with a campsite.

A limited number of free tickets are also available for those officially participating in the festival to attend opera performances, classical music concerts, theatre, and ballet.

[1] There is a shopping market in the main event venue that runs the entire duration of the festival and is perhaps the largest for the goth and "dark culture" community anywhere in the world.

The dozen-or-more additional venues for the WGT concerts and activities are as varied as the events, from the stately Schauspielhaus to the somber Krypta of the Völkerschlachtdenkmal to the Parkbühne under the trees.

Festival participants typically stay either in designated camping areas on the Agra grounds near the main venue or in the hotels and hostels in and around Leipzig.

[19] Official drinks vendors use sturdy "Wave Gotik Treffen" branded plastic cups instead of disposable ones, for which a deposit (pfand) is required.

The official festival starts on Friday, and as Monday is a public holiday in Germany the events run until the end of the all-night farewell club parties in the early morning on Tuesday.