Paléo Festival Nyon
The Paléo Festival founded in 1976 is the biggest open-air musical event in Switzerland. More than 120 concerts will take place on six stages over six days. Around 220,000 spectators will be able to listen to rock music, French songs, world music, hip hop and classical music from newcomers and established artistes.
swissinfo.ch
Devilish fun in Interlaken
The Greenfield Festival is all for rock music: hard, loud and fast. The three-day event started in 2005 and has already found a loyal following.
Keystone
Montreux, where legends meet: Iggy Pop, Miles Davis, Gilberto Gil
Although its official name "Montreux Jazz Festival" hints at the event's roots, pop and rock stars have long been fixtures down by Lake Geneva. The first festival lasted just three days in 1967. In 1977 it covered 23 days. Today, 200,000 spectators can get their fill of big names over 16 days
Keystone
Sleeping at Bern's Gurten festival
The Gurten festival on the hill above Bern is 30 years old. What began as a folk music festival has since become one of the country's biggest open-air events
Keystone
Fun in the mud at the Open Air St Gallen
This festival is the granddaddy of all Switzerland's open-air events, celebrating its 31st anniversary this year. Its mud is legendary, but that has never put spectators off.
swissinfo.ch
Quiet elegance in Lucerne
The Lucerne Festival began in 1938, when Arturo Toscanini conducted a gala concert at Richard Wagner's former home. In the years afterwards, it became one of the world's leading classical music festivals. The festival's move into Lucerne's recently built culture and congress centre gave it one of the world's best concert halls in the world.
Keystone
Drama under the night sky in Avenches
Opera has been regularly staged at the old Roman amphitheater in Avenches since 1995. Both music lovers and the merely curious have contributed to the success of this annual event.
swissinfo.ch
Rock Oz'Arènes: really old stones
Avenches' other summer festival concentrates on rock and pop music. Since its beginning in 1992 in Switzerland's Roman capital, it has always been considered the smallest of the big festivals.
Keystone
The founding fathers of Switzerland in Interlaken
The Tell open-air play was first shown in Interlaken in 1912. The actors, all local amateurs, play out their roles in front of a natural backdrop. Some of them have appeared on stage more than 800 times.
Keystone
Poetry and nature at the Leukerbad literature festival
In the resort of Leukerbad, cliffs, water and the sky are all key aspects of the festival. Taking place for the 12th time, the festival is a dialogue between voices and languages and the written word.
Keystone
Locarno film festival: big screen on the Piazza Grande
Locarno's international film festival has been running since 1946. It is the smallest of the festivals with an international impact. The main attraction is the nightly screening on the town's main square. Up to 8,000 spectators watch the action lighting up the big screen.
swissinfo.ch
New alpine sounds in central Switzerland
"Alpentöne" is a music festival that brings together musicians from all over the Alps every two years in Altdorf, canton Uri. The festival links tradition with modernity, ancient roots with classical, jazz and avant-garde music.
(Bild: Alpentöne.ch)
Theatre in Zurich
Founded in 1980 as an annual meeting of independent theatre groups, Zurich's Theater Spektakel quickly evolved into a cultural event of international appeal. Today it ranks among the most important European festivals for contemporary performing arts.
Keystone
Flims Klang music festival: nature is the stage
Ridges, lakes, castle ruins and hotels are the backdrop for the Flims Klang festival. Since 2003, musical styles have included baroque, classic, jazz, improvisation and percussion.
(Bild: Flimsklang.ch)
A selection of some of the 160 events in Switzerland.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.