Side Events

The gin stills are ready and waiting for participants to distil their own gin from high-quality ingredients and to discover the secrets of the art of distilling under the guidance of experts.

Creative minds and technical skills are required here. The task is to build a soapbox that can be raced from pre-made kits. There are no limits to creativity here. The next two hours will see participants fastening, measuring, building, glueing, painting and carrying out several test runs.

Two architectural worlds combine at Museum Bezau – a typical Bregenzerwald farmhouse from the 18th century, a listed building, and a modern addition built mostly using local handworkers. 

The newly constructed cooperative cheese cellar in Lingenau is home to 32,000 cheeses. A visit to the cheese – which matures for between four and 18 months – constitutes an impressive walk through the storeroom at 10.5°C.

Recreation from exciting workshops is best achieved in the great outdoors – simple and good are the two words that characterise this accompanying programme. Herbert Edlinger’s pleasure walks focus on regional agriculture, nature and its products as well as local cheese and the production of specialities. 

The Kunsthaus Bregenz is one of the most important museum buildings in the world when it comes to contemporary architecture. It has been attracting art enthusiasts as well as fans of architecture ever since its inauguration in 1997. An hour-long guided tour on the theme of architecture affords attendees a look behind the scenes of the multi-award-winning building by architect Peter Zumthor.

Have you ever made your own barbecue, complete with cutlery and equipment? That's the kind of thing teams can expect at Steelsoul in Röthis.

The Austria Guides have developed guided and themed tours of the city that present a wide variety of places, people and cultures and prove that it is the mix that makes Dornbirn the exciting city that it is.

For those who simply can’t get enough of it, head to the Alpenkäse Bregenzerwald Sennerei on a journey of discovery. There you can learn how cheese is still produced in the time-honoured way.

For a few weeks, a small festival with a large fan community attracts international stars and an international audience to Schwarzenberg and Hohenems. Established in 1976, the famous Schubert Festival grew to such an extent that it now hosts over 90 events a year.

The only Women’s Museum in Austria plays host to varying exhibitions on women past and present, from a regional or supra-regional perspective. Frauenmuseum Hittisau aims to make clear the cultural contributions of women and shows one or two exhibitions a year on topics relevant. 

Fantastic opportunities to escape the hustle and bustle of the city exist in and around Dornbirn. For example, the guided tours through the Rappenloch and Alploch gorges. But it never is actually completely quiet in the cool gorges because the gurgling and rushing of the Dornbirner Ach remain constant companions.

A very special natural monument takes you right down to the depths of the Cave Schneckenloch in Bizau. The biggest cave in Vorarlberg requires a certain degree of stamina and sure-footedness, yet once the visitors get back to terra firma they are usually lost for words, overcome by images of subterranean halls, stalactites and natural tunnels, some of which you have to crawl through.

The historic old town of Feldkirch at the foot of Schattenburg Castle and protected by a Buddhist monastery is home to many historical nooks and crannies, inns, taverns and markets and the legacy of the humanists who made history there long ago.

Every year, the lake stage of the Bregenz Festival Theatre attracts thousands of spectators who are enchanted by the singers and musicians in the glow of the evening light. However, you need to take a guided tour behind the scenes of the stage to find out that sophisticated technology which functions perfectly both under and above water, is behind all of this.