Saxophonist on stage facing an outdoor festival crowd at sunset

Festivals and events

A vibrant calendar of cultural celebrations and internationally renowned events reflects the country’s creative spirit and enduring traditions.

The heart of the moment

Soak up the atmosphere of extraordinary occasions, where every moment becomes a memory worth keeping.

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Live band performing on stage, with a glass of wine in the foreground

Montreux Jazz Festival

For a few weeks each summer, Montreux moves to a different beat. Along the shores of Lake Geneva, international music icons, concerts, performances and events turn the town into one continuous stage. Born from jazz and long since expanded beyond the boundaries of the genre, the festival still carries an unmistakable energy where music, landscape and a strong sense of place come together.

Green and blue laser light installation in a square during the Lilu Light Festival in Lucerne

Lilu Light Festival – Lucerne

As evening falls, Lucerne takes on an entirely different glow. Art installations, video projections and interactive works reshape the squares, façades and narrow streets of the historic centre, creating a route suspended somewhere between art and imagination. A winter appointment that invites visitors to rediscover the city through an almost dreamlike dimension.

Crowd in Piazza Grande at dusk for an open-air screening at the Locarno Film Festival

Locarno Film Festival

Every summer in Locarno, cinema is experienced both on and beyond the screen. During the Festival, you can move from a premiere to an encounter with directors and actors, wander through a city animated by screenings and events and, in the evening, take your seat in Piazza Grande, transformed into a spectacular open-air cinema beneath the stars. A major international event where the allure of the big screen meets the relaxed rhythm of Ticino.

Masked figures in red costumes throwing confetti at the Basel Carnival

Basel Carnival

In Basel, Carnival is far more than a popular celebration: it is a collective ritual deeply woven into the city’s identity and recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. For three days, painted lanterns, masks, processions and music take over the streets, filling them with traditions and rituals passed down through generations. A rare opportunity to experience local culture at its most vivid, expressed through sound, movement and customs that continue to shape the city today.

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