Music

42nd edition of the Gurtenfestival has some new features in store

At this year's edition of the Gurtenfestival, visitors can look forward to a stage with comedy, live podcasts and readings for the first time. (archive picture)

Keystone

From Wednesday, the Gurtenfestival will attract visitors to Bern's local mountain for the 42nd time. In addition to music, this year's edition will also feature comedy, live podcasts and readings for the first time.

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14.07.2025, 14:00•15.07.2025, 22:51

With the new "Forum" stage, the organizers are already hoping for a well-attended "Güsche" in the afternoon. Performers include Felizitas Ambauen and Sabine Meyer with their podcast "Beziehungskosmos" and the comedy duo of Reena Kirshnaraja and Milan Milanski.

Writer Meral Kureyshi will also be reading from her novel "Im Meer waren wir nie" ("We were never in the sea") in the Forum, and Gülsha Adilji will be hosting a matchmaking show.

In the evening, as usual, national and international live acts and DJs will perform on the six Gurten stages. This year's headliners include the two US stars Will Smith and Macklemore as well as German rapper K.I.Z.

British singer-songwriter Lola Young is also expected to fill the hill in front of the main stage. She went through the roof last year with her pop song "Messy" on Tiktok, since then her songs have been streamed millions of times.

On the Waldbühne, which is reserved for Swiss acts, the focus will be on dialect newcomer Edb, ESC participant Zoë Më and Bernese local hero Jule X, for example. The latter created such an exuberant atmosphere at the Gurtenfestival two years ago that his audience caused the floor to collapse.

New footpath up the local mountain

Another innovation at this year's festival is the access concept. The festival can now be reached via an additional entrance at the Waldbühne, which is around 25 minutes' walk from the Blinzern bus stop.

This is the organizers' response to a change in guest behavior since 2022, as they announced at the beginning of the year. The change is not directly related to the massive overcrowding on Friday evenings at last year's festival, they emphasized.

At that time, there were unusually long waiting times at the Gurtenbahn valley station. There were even traffic jams on the footpath. The organizers explained the rush with the performance of the Bernese cult band Patent Ochsner. It later transpired that the Gurtenfestival had issued several thousand tickets too many due to an error in the booking system.