22/06/2026
Open-Air Season: When Switzerland Becomes a Stage
On 4 December 1971, the casino in Montreux burned to the ground. As smoke drifted across Lake Geneva, a British band stood on the shore watching — and turned the scene into one of the most famous guitar riffs in music history: "Smoke on the Water." The fire broke out during a Frank Zappa concert, when someone fired a flare gun into the ceiling.
What does that have to do with the Swiss summer? Quite a lot. Because from June to August, tiny Switzerland transforms into one of the densest festival landscapes in Europe — and Montreux is only the beginning.
One country, one stage
The Montreux Jazz Festival was founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs — on a small budget and a big passion. Today it is an institution that has brought everyone from Miles Davis to Prince to its lakeside stage. Just a couple of hours away, the Paléo Festival in Nyon draws around 230,000 visitors every summer — spread over six days, one of the largest open-airs on the continent.
Add the OpenAir St. Gallen in the Sittertobel valley, the Gurtenfestival on Bern's local mountain and dozens of smaller events in almost every canton. For a country of barely nine million people, that density is remarkable.
Did you know? The Paléo Festival is so popular that tickets regularly sell out within hours — often long before the line-up is even announced. People buy on trust.
Why open-air just hits different
It is not only the music. It is the mix of warm summer evenings, meadows full of people and the feeling that time stands still for a few hours. Research on the effects of live music suggests that experiencing it together boosts the release of feel-good hormones — perhaps the reason you still remember a particular concert years later. And then there is the moment when thousands of voices sing the same chorus — goosebumps guaranteed.
A little detour: who actually sells you your festival ticket?
Before you hold up your phone at the entrance, that ticket has a surprisingly Swiss history behind it — one in which banks kept having a hand in the game.
Ticketcorner, still the market leader today, was founded in 1987 not by concert promoters but as a marketing tool of the Swiss Bank Corporation — the bank wanted to draw a young crowd into its branches. In 1999 the brands Ticketcorner, Ticketline, Ticket4you and Ticketphone merged into Ticketcorner AG. After that the company changed hands in step with the Swiss economy: in 2001 the western-Swiss technology group Kudelski, and in 2010 finally the German market giant CTS Eventim — for 65 million francs, together with the publishing house Ringier.
When Ticketcorner later tried to merge with its biggest rival Starticket (Tamedia), the Competition Commission put a stop to it. The solution was elegant: no merger, but a joint ticketing group instead. Starticket is called «See Tickets» today — also part of the Eventim universe.
And the «yellow» side? PostFinance tried its luck too: with the «PostFinance Card Ticket» it offered its own admission card plus booking platform — concert tickets and even ski passes could be loaded straight onto the card. The venture stayed an episode: at the end of 2010 PostFinance discontinued the Card Ticket and sent its customers on to — you guessed it — Ticketcorner. (The Post's big «yellowworld» internet portal also ended in 2014 as a loss-maker. Yellow simply could not make money online.)
A counter-movement formed against all this concentration: Petzi, the association of Swiss music clubs, runs a solidarity-based non-profit ticketing service with deliberately low fees. And Eventfrog turns the model on its head entirely — tickets free for organisers, financed through advertising. So the battle for your festival ticket is far from decided.
It feels better when you are prepared
Anyone who has ever stood at the meeting point with a dead phone battery knows it: the right gear makes the difference. A compact power bank means the festival photo still works in the evening — and the trip home stays plannable.
For mild evenings in the park or the pre-party moment on the balcony, a weatherproof Bluetooth speaker is worth it. And because the Swiss summer is famously moody, a foldable rain jacket belongs in your bag just as much as an insulated bottle that keeps drinks cool for hours.
For your spot on the grass, a light picnic blanket or a foldable stool is worth its weight in gold — and when it gets dark, a small LED or solar light brings both orientation and atmosphere. Little things that make a long festival day noticeably more pleasant.
By the way: in German-speaking countries "Open Air" is used as a noun for a festival — a so-called pseudo-anglicism. English speakers tend to say open-air concert or music festival instead.
The season is yours
Whether it is a big festival or a spontaneous concert in the neighbourhood park — summer is made for evenings under the open sky. Feel free to browse our range if you would like to round out your gear for the season. And tell us: which stage are you heading to this year?