3 June 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

This year we feature costume and dance clubs from the Zurich and Schaffhausen regions. All day, all over the Ballenberg grounds, they provide fascinating entertainment with traditional singing and dancing. The highlight is at 4.00 pm, when many hundreds of costumed folk gather at the East Midlands group of buildings for their closing dance.

16 June 2012 | 11 am - 4.00 pm

As part of its 125th anniversary celebrations VSSM, the Association of Swiss Joiners and Furniture Makers, is honouring Ballenberg by mounting a special event.

Learn about the exciting crafts of the wheelwrights and ski-makers at the Bümpliz (canton Bern) smithy (near Ballenberg’s east entrance, Brienzwiler).
11am: 1 hour of autographs by a top skiing personality.
2pm: draw for the competition winner. Entry forms are available up to and including 16 June at the wheelwright exhibit ticket windows. First prize is a pair of Stöckli skis, valued at CHF 890.

17 June to 5 August 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Traditional silk production at the estate from Novazzano, canton Ticino. Spread over a week, visitors can observe the entire process: from harvesting mulberry leaves and feeding them to the silkworms, unwinding the cocoons, to dyeing and weaving of silk fabrics.

17 to 24 June, daily: Silkworm rearing

25 June to 26 July, daily: Silkworm rearing as well as silk crafts demonstrations according to the weekly programme

30 July to 5 August, daily: Silkworm rearing

27 to 29 July: The highlight. The goings-on of a full week up to 26 July can be seen in a single day this weekend: the entire process of traditional silk production, from mulberry plantation to silk scarf.

School classes can reserve a theme day and adult groups a guided tour on the theme of silk.

Saturday, 23 June and Sunday, 24 June 2012

23 to 24 June 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Canton Jura is our guest at Ballenberg. The Association des Amis Romands du Ballenberg (Friends of Ballenberg from French-speaking Switzerland) invites you to watch handcrafts and culture, and sample foods, song and music from Switzerland’s youngest canton.

23 to 24 June 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Fear not – this is no alien invasion: The shimmering discs you see flying through the air are nothing but the missiles thrown in the ancient Swiss sport of Platzgen.

1 July 2012 | 10 am - 4.00 pm

Coiffure Suisse, together with theatre hairstylists, give your children facial makeovers from 11 am to 4 pm on our annual face-painting day. The kids can choose the facial make-up of a hedgehog, a cat, a mouse, or some other favourite animal.

2 to 22 July 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

After letting the batch of 60-70 cubic metres of wood slowly smoulder for 10 to 12 days inside a sod-covered mound, Ballenberg’s own charcoal burners will have produced three or four tons of usable charcoal – once everything’s cooled down, of course.

7 to 8 July 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Our kitchen and medicinal herb and dye-plant gardens are in full bloom at this time of year. Enthusiasts of natural medicine and therapy meet as they always do at our historic pharmacy, where salves and herbal tea mixtures are concocted before your very eyes. Free guided tours of the herbal and scented garden. While you’re there, don’t miss the new Scent Cellar.

11 July to 25 August 2012 | 8.15 pm - 10.00 pm

Enjoy an open-air performance – in Swiss-German, mind you – of the play “Der Pfarrer und der Kapitän”, written by Dagny Gioulami, produced and directed by Jürg Schneckenburger. Every Wednesday to Saturday at 8.15 pm. Tickets on sale from 1 May. Phone +41 33 952 10 44 (Monday to Friday, 9-11 am and 2-4 pm).

1 August 2012 | 9 am - 12.00 pm

There’s no better place to celebrate this special day than with a relaxed breakfast at Ballenberg. Enjoy some of our sumptuous specialities at the Ostermundigen house, from 9 am to 12 pm.
The official programme, with traditional music and addresses by national politicians from all four language regions, kicks off at 10.30 in the morning.

17 to 19 August 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Ballenberg washerwomen do the laundry the old-fashioned way. Get ready for a shock: With wood ashes as laundry soap, they scrub their laundry until it’s sparkling white. You can also observe soap being made by hand.

26 August 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Where would Swiss folk customs be without the lilting sounds of native music? Music groups of four regional sections of the Swiss Folk Music Association perform according to a set schedule at the storehouse from Aarau in the Eastern Switzerland group of buildings.

22 to 23 September 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Eastern Switzerland’s Friends of Ballenberg (OFG – Ostschweizer Fördergesellschaft Ballenberg) welcome you to our first winepress festival, at the East Midlands group of buildings. The 17th-century press from Schaffhausen is back to working order, with one-to-two pressings scheduled on each of the festival’s two days. Taste the juice fresh from the press! Rounding off the festival are Ballenberg’s own distillery, a “Tresterstöckli” production, a barrel-maker, live music and, of course, the Festival stalls selling food and drink.

22 to 23 September 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Market stalls surround Restaurant Degen, in Ballenberg’s Central Switzerland group, and display home-made Ballenberg products. On sale will be produce from our own vegetable gardens, the products of the Ballenberg Course Centre and the historic pharmacy. We demonstrate a selection of handcrafts that are shown daily throughout the museum grounds and you can watch our very own cider press in action.

22 to 23 September 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Mules and donkeys from all over the country will once again find their way to Ballenberg for their special weekend. We show how to keep and breed these companionable animals and at the Ballenberg Arena demonstrations of the specially talented among our four-legged friends are sure to delight you. There are mule rides for young and old, but the weekend’s uncontested highlight is the spectacularly endearing donkey parade.

23 September 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

The Open-Air Museum Ballenberg says a big thank-you. All of our sponsors are cordially invited to join us at 11 am for an aperitif before visiting their animal, tree or house.

7 October 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

At the impressive Novazzano estate, we celebrate our traditional Ticino festival in cooperation with the Mendrisiotto e Basso Ceresio Tourist Office with music, culture and culinary delights.

20 to 21 October 2012 | 10 am - 4.30 pm

Turning pretty flax plants into sturdy linen cloth takes lots of work. At our Madiswil house you can watch flax being rippled, roasted (yes, roasted!), scutched, heckled, spun and woven into fine linen. And while you’re there, pick up a bottle of our traditional scutching schnapps and some fresh produce from Ballenberg’s vegetable gardens.