Switzerland boasts an incredible array of open-air festivals. We’ve put together a far from definitive list of some of the major and smaller events being held from St. Gallen and Zurich to Valais and Ticino, building the sense of anticipation as we look forward to open-air season. We also explain exactly what camping equipment you’ll need. As more and more festivals are going cashless, you often don’t need cash to pay at pop-up stalls.
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How many open-air events do you attend in a year?
Anyone who enjoys watching acts perform outdoors in the unique atmosphere of open-air festivals is spoilt for choice in Switzerland, which has an extensive open-air festival season offering pop-up stalls. One of the first major events to kick off the season is “Unplugged Zermatt” in April, while the “Big Air” in Chur in October is one of the last. But there are a huge number of events in between, and some are even held outside of this period during winter. The season really gets under way with the start of the summer festivals, when camping is also more comfortable – unless a downpour turns the festival site into a mudbath. Taking the right open-air equipment is always a good idea. If you’d like to try something new in addition to your favourite festival, we’ve put together a short and by no means definitive list of events:
The Openair Frauenfeld is the biggest open-air music festival in German-speaking Switzerland and Europe’s largest hip-hop festival. Over 70 international and Swiss acts perform on the Grosse Allmend in Frauenfeld at this four-day event.
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St. Gallen doesn’t just boast one of the oldest Swiss football clubs still in existence, but also one of the oldest open-air music festivals. The OpenAir St. Gallen has been held on the last weekend of June or the first weekend of July since 1977. Its location in a nature conservation area near the city, its line-up featuring lots of trend-setting acts and its loyal audience all make the festival in Sittertobel absolutely unique. The fact that the campsite is located on the festival grounds also adds to the wonderful atmosphere.
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Six days, six nights, 250 concerts and 150 stalls: the Paléo Festival Nyon is Switzerland’s biggest open-air festival. It features lots of different types of music, including rock, pop, hip-hop, electro and world music. Around 250,000 people attend the festival each year on an 84-hectare site up above Nyon.
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Each July since 1977, Bern residents and music fans from all over Switzerland have been making the pilgrimage to the Gurtenfestival to enjoy music greats, little-known artists and the wonderful atmosphere on the Gurten or “Güsche”, as the locals call it, which is a mountain near Bern.
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More than 40 international rock, metal and punk bands appear at the Greenfield Festival on the site of Interlaken Airport. The three-day open-air event has a wonderful atmosphere and attracts around 30,000 festival-goers.
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This four-day festival is held near Zurich Airport and features a wide range of music, including rock, pop, electro and indie. It’s renowned for its impressive stage production and great atmosphere.
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The Moon&Stars Festival on Piazza Grande in Locarno, by the shores of Lake Maggiore, lasts for several days. There’s a fantastic line-up. Locarno welcomes global stars as well as Swiss greats of rock and pop.
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“Iischi Party”, which is what the natives of Valais call their music festival, is a cult event. It has been thrilling audiences with rock, pop and electro beats since 1986. The village of Gampel-Bratsch, which has 2,000 residents, is suddenly transformed into a big city. Year after year, around 100,000 festival-goers attend the event on the third weekend of August, in the lush valley in Valais “beyond the Lötschberg”.
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The delightful festival in the mountains of Graubünden: the Open Air Lumnezia in Degen creates a wonderful festival atmosphere amidst magnificent mountain scenery. The Open Air Lumnezia has now become one of Switzerland’s biggest festivals. With the number of visitors hitting around 18,000 festival-goers in recent years, the event’s capacity has been reached as far as topography is concerned.
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There are lots of other smaller festivals held in the great outdoors – from the Canton of Aargau to the Canton of Zurich. While the major festivals feature big stars and great line-ups, the smaller events can provide a family-friendly atmosphere and incredible venues. A few examples:
The Festival des Arcs is an alternative open-air event held during the second half of June on the edge of the Gipsgrube nature conservation area in Ehrendingen, Canton of Aargau. The festival’s Instagram account describes the event as “anarchic, diverse, eco-minded, exciting and wonderful”. The booking team aims to promote regional performers, but also includes bands from other parts of Switzerland and abroad. There’s also puppet theatre, writing workshops, performance art, dance, acrobatics and a children’s and family afternoon.
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The Burning Mountain Festival near Zernez in Engadine takes place on Europe’s highest festival site. Over 120 artists from all over the world perform the latest progressive, minimal, electro and psytrance tracks at 1,470 metres above sea level. The event also features fire performers, colourful decorations, art installations, food stalls and much more.
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Small but excellent is the maxim of the Kleinstadt Open Air in Walenstadt. Here the capacity is limited: a maximum of 1,500 people can enjoy the small festival that mainly features Swiss acts. The festival’s website describes the music as “diverse” and includes blues, rock, pop and other types, too.
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A small open-air party, first organized by a few young people in 1994 in the Wasseramt district of Etziken, has become a successful small-scale Swiss open-air festival over the years. Lots of highly regarded and well-known acts on the Swiss music scene – such as Krokus, Patent Ochsner, Pegasus, Shakra, Züri West, Stress, Stephanie Heinzmann, Lovebugs, Marc Sway, Bligg, Luca Hänni and many more – have performed on the two festival stages in Etziken. But regional newcomers and international acts also enjoy performing on the hockey pitch in Etziken, Solothurn. Before the big event, a children’s open-air festival is held on the Thursday for the kids.
The link will open in a new window More on Openair Etziken at openair-etziken.ch
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The online Openair-Guide contains details of many more festivals – both large and small – taking place in Switzerland. A useful tool: you can search by canton, date, band, type of music or month.
Apart from suitable clothing, don’t forget the following open-air utensils:
Festivals and open-air events are also moving towards cashless payment. In some places, it’s a case of no cash, cashfree or cashless. While some events use their own cash system for payment at pop-up stalls, the standard cashless payment methods, such as credit cards or payment apps, are accepted in other places (such as the Openair Frauenfeld). To avoid missing out on food and non-food pop-ups, it’s best to check the festival website beforehand to find out whether or not you need to take cash. These websites generally also explain how their own cashless systems work. At the Gurtenfestival, for example, festival-goers are given a cashless card to top up. At the OpenAir St. Gallen, visitors pay with their festival wristbands, which contain a chip that can be loaded with credit beforehand or on-site. And who knows, perhaps one day there’ll be no need to interact with the payment procedure at all during festivals – the magic word is invisible payment.
No, there are still festivals, such as the Open Air Gampel, where cash can still be used throughout the site. There’s even an ATM on the festival grounds. It’s best to check how you can pay on the website of the festival you’re going to.
No. For invisible payments, the payment process runs automatically, imperceptibly and seamlessly in the background, because it’s fully integrated into the purchase of products or services. That means customers don’t have to do anything during the payment process. That’s different from cashless systems, where a card, smartphone or festival wristband has to be presented to make payment.
Invisible payment makes payment processes much more convenient for customers, as interaction is no longer required. See examples and benefits of invisible payment in the article “Invisible payments – the future of shopping”.
The website of the festival you’re going to will tell you whether credit and debit cards are accepted. For example, the Zürich Openair accepts the most commonly used cards and payment apps, as well as credit and debit cards.
At festivals that still accept credit and debit cards, smartphones can generally also be used to make mobile payments, provided the cards have been saved on the phone.
