Since 1988, the Rheingau Music Festival, one of the leading festivals in Europe, has dominated concert life in the region every year from the end of June to the beginning of September with around 150 events. The range is enormous: large symphony concerts in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus, chamber music in the Fürst-von-Metternich-Saal at Johannisberg Castle, choral symphony concerts in the basilica and chamber orchestra concerts in the historic cloister of Eberbach Monastery as well as jazz and cabaret events in the Rheingau vineyards and on Rhine boats.

Michael Herrmann, the director of the Rheingau Music Festival, already had the vision of a festival in his home region in the early 1970s and founded the "Rheingau Musik Festival e.V." on November 23, 1987. The first season took place in 1988. The great success of the festival led to a rapid expansion - 19 concerts became 50, 100 and more. The Rheingau Music Festival is financed by sponsors with very little public funding. The combination of musical highlights from the international music scene with a strong regional focus is what makes the festival so distinctive. The list of musicians who have performed at the Rheingau Music Festival in the Friedrich-von-Thiersch-Saal reads like an excerpt from the top 100 of the classical music charts.

Every year, the Rheingau Music Festival organizes around 25 concerts in the Friedrich-von-Thiersch-Saal of the Wiesbaden Kurhaus and three concerts in Wiesbaden's Kurpark. Other venues in Wiesbaden are the Marktkirche, the Lutherkirche, the Großes Haus in the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof.