The Swiss Open-Air Museum will be opening its doors on Holy Thursday, 14 April 2022 – Fairy tales, wine and sports to kick off the new season

Visitors can expect a legendary season opening when the Swiss Open-Air Museum opens its doors on Holy Thursday, 14 April 2022. Let our storytellers sweep you away into the world of Swiss fairy tales and legends. Nine audio stations were already built last year for the ‘All ears’ project, launched in cooperation with the Mutabor Fairy Tale Foundation. At these stations, visitors can listen to regional legends and fairy tales on their smartphones via QR codes. Now, 14 new stations have been added to Ballenberg’s world of fairy tales and legends. During the opening weekend – and then on every third Sunday of the month – we will also be offering this experience, which has been purely digital so far, in an analogue format: there will be storytellers stationed in and around the historic buildings, waiting for listeners young and old. On opening day, the Swiss Open-Air Museum will also be awarded the 2021/2022 ‘Schweizer Märchenpreis’ (‘Swiss fairy tale prize’) by the Mutabor Foundation for preserving this treasure trove of Swiss fairy tales.

Valais vintners and the big bad Bernese

The extended Easter and opening weekend is jam-packed with plenty of other attractions, too: on Good Friday, 15 April 2022, the vintners of Valais will be visiting Ballenberg to tend their vineyard, located right behind the East Entrance in Brienzwiler. Of course, our guests from Valais always bring some samples of their wine with them to taste, along with some delicious raclette. After being cancelled last year due to poor weather conditions, and stopped for two years because of the pandemic, the traditional ‘BallenbergSchwinget’ Swiss wrestling event will finally be taking place again at the open-air museum on Easter Saturday, 16 April 2022. Join the ‘Schwingersektion Brienz’ wrestling club for the first festival of the season. The ‘Schwingklub Entlebuch’ and ‘Schwingersektion Lungern’ clubs are also invited as guest clubs. Tickets may only be purchased from the ticket office on the day of the event, so we recommend getting here early.

Medicinal herbs, handicrafts and autumn traditions

The Ballenberg programme is full to bursting – and not just during the opening weekend. There are numerous highlights for visitors to enjoy all the way to the end of October. There are also two brand-new, exciting events on the programme: the Seisler Days event in mid-May and the ‘Fest der Feste’ (Festival of Swiss Traditions), which will be taking place on the last weekend of September and the first weekend of October. And on Sundays, Ballenberg’s pharmacists will once again be running the popular guided tours of their unique herb and fragrance garden. If you’d like to explore Ballenberg as a group, you will now not only have an exciting range of themed tours to choose from, but also various full-day programmes with craft workshops. From cheese-making, sgraffito and straw weaving to roasting coffee and baking cakes in a historical kitchen: with our new range of active experiences, visitors will get to enjoy a different side of the open-air museum.