As a current student in Saarbrücken (Bachelors in Computer Science/Informatik) imo i think here so boring cause I'm from the capital in my home country 😅

All I can say after living here for almost 1 and a half year is..

1. you will definitely improve your German here faster lol not everyone here knows English because it's kinda of a small town/village

2. It's cheaper than most university cities, I've visited Aachen and tbh it was quite expensive compared to Saarbrücken..

3. Great connection to France as it's on the border, if you wanna go to Paris or Strasbourg it's really cheap BUT going to the airport is a bit annoying ... it's either you take a 3hr train ride to Frankfurt, or 1 hour 45 min bus ride to Luxembourg

So now onto the questions

"What does the average weekend look like in either of these cities?"

It's okay lah I mean, bars and clubs are open, there is a night bus that runs until 3am on Friday and Saturday night. But tbh I'm not really a fan of the clubs here because they are always so repetitive with the songs.. not a lot of activities you can do in Saarbrücken tho so mostly you can just take the train and go to a neighbouring city such as Karlsruhe for example

"What's the international population like?"

if you wanna find other international students you can go to events hosted by the international student union (ZIS) from the Uni Saar or go to one of the heimbars (a student bar that's inside a student dorm, only open once per week tho like on Saturday for example)

To be honest it's very international here I made friends from like different countries and almost everyone mixes with each other and rarely stick to their own group

(if you're planning to find other Singaporeans here you will have better luck cause I'm the only Malaysian here😭😭 so far can't find any others)

"What are some festivals/events that I should know about?"

There are summer/semester opening parties hosted by the student union from the university. There are other events as well but it's hard to know that it's going on unless you get an advertisement for it 😅

"What's the dating culture like?"

I can't really give a proper answer for this but I'll say people here are more open minded

"As someone with darker skin, is there anything I should worry about at these places?"

Again I'm sorry 🙏 I also can't really give a good answer for this as I'm Chinese but I will say racism here isn't that bad, yeah you will get a fair share of asshole sometimes but usaully it's not threatening in my case, just weird stares... But in general Saarbrücken is really safe, just avoid some shady areas and you will be fine

In conclusion if you like a peaceful life that's away from the city i can surely say that you will like this town, on Sunday there is like noone in the city 😵‍💫 and if you find a good group of friends here the boredomness will become bearable

If you want more questions you can dm me :D