Gauder Fest

Gauder Fest Review

The more than 500-year-old Gauder Fest is held on the first weekend in May. Thousands of visitors, many of them in traditional costume from Tirol and other parts of Austria, pack the little market town for the colorful skits, music, and singing—and great quantities of Gauderbier, a strong brew created for the occasion. You can hear some of the country's best singing by the valley residents and listen to expert harp and zither playing, for which the valley is famous. Tradition runs strong here, so even if you can't make it in May, there are other festival opportunities: witness the Perchtenlaufen, processions of colorfully masked well-wishers going the neighborhood rounds on January 5; the annual Almabtrieb is celebrated in the last September and first October days, when the cows, decorated with wreaths and bells, are herded back from the high Alpine pastures into the lower fields and barns.