Festivalseason 2019: OASG Festivalguide

Openair St.Gallen 2019 Festivalguide

After I already posted quite a few stories, photos and articles about Openair St.Gallen on Instagram and Feathers & Goldbears, its time for the big Festivalguide and I hope you are as excited as I am!

What is it?

Openair St.Gallen is a mainstream/alternative music festival in the east of Switzerland and has taken place ever year since 1977, which makes it the countries oldest festival without ever taking a break. The music is a mix between Artists that are currently in the charts, old school bands and swiss musicians, it is well known to give newcomer artists a place to play and many bands played OASG in their early years! Tickets are either available for 4, 3 or 2 days, daily tickets are only available for sunday and the 3/2 day tickets are only valiable from friday till sunday/saturday and sunday. Due to its unique location and the camping situation it wouldn’t be possible to control who has a ticket for that day and who doesn‘t.

How to get there

The festival takes place in a valley close to a city in eastern switzerland called St.Gallen ( who guessed it haha). Easiest way to reach it is via train and bus, as there are extra trains to St,Gallen main station and buses departing every few minutes that take you right in front of the bridge that goes over the river that flows around the festivalground. You can also arrive by car and park at a special festival parking area, but thats costy while  public transport is included in your ticket. There are also buses going from the parking area to the entrance. If you arrive by plane, flying to Zurich or Altenrhein would be the best choice. They used to have two entrances but they closed the one closer to the parking spot in 2018, even though it was the easier one.

Camping & Facilities

While on most festivals the camping and stage area are seperated, at this festival it is actually all in one. You can basically camp wherever you want as long as its not in front of the stage you can pitch your tent all around the valley. There is a small stall with basic articles but as its Switzerland, nothing is cheap really. 

Sadly the shower and toilet situation was really bad this year, they charged 7 CHF for a single shower and didn‘t place any mobile toilets anywhere which led to massive crowds in front of the water toilets which where at a passway so it was a mess. 

There aren‘t really any special activities and you can access all the food stalls whenever you want due to the camping situation.

Music & Line Up

OpenAir St.Gallen is a pop and alternative festival, they are well known for featuring smaller artists and quite often they book the rising stars alongside the well known ones. I attached this years Line Up , for more concert photos please head over to Feathers & Goldbears!

People / Vibe

On swiss festivals people are a bit more on their own than about meeting new people. I always felt like its harder to get in touch with anyone outside of your group and had the same experience when I took pictures of people, they were way more reserve than in any other country I have been before. You can definately feel that the majority isn`t there for the music but for their friends and the party, which actually speaks for the overall vibe  and you will always find all party tents completly full but maybe a major act if it isn`t in a headliner slot with a half empty stage.

Food & Drinks

There are the usual beer stalls but also some independent ones like one that sells Sangria, a beautiful wine area in the middle of a tree and bars with special drinks.
Foodwise probably half of it is around cheese, which speaks for Switzerland but a bit more variety would have been nice. There are some small places with nice Ffood, but sadly only one that offers a vegan sandwich and no real labelling for vegetarian stuff. Its also quite obvious that its sponsered by Swiss Milk and Swiss Meat, so this was a bit of a downer.

Stages

At OpenAir St.Gallen there are two big stages and a smaller one for newcomers or local bands. There is also an independent bar with some classic rock hits up on the hill, but as there is no live music I won`t  classify it as a stage.

The main stage, called Sitterbühne, is placed in the middle of the valley and faces the sun. Basically the whole area on this side of the bridge is in front of the stage, there is one stage divider but it sin`t complete or limited access.

The second stage is called "Sternenbühne"  and is a tent. Personally I love the acoustic and light situation in there, but especially when its hot or rains it gets pretty crowded. Its one big circus tent with open sides, no divider and you can get out on all three sides.

The Plaza stage is on a hill on the oposite side of the mains stage, in a cute little village where you can buy clothes from local brands and take part in little activities. There is a chillout area in front of it and the ambiente is absolutely beautiful! 

Sustainability

I wrote a complete review for this topic on Feathers & Goldbears, so just click here!



A big thank you to Openair St.Gallen for having me, I had a beautiful time with friends I haven`t seen in forever and made memories I will treasure forever!

I hope you enjoyed this guide and if there is anything I missed that you wanna see in the next view guides, please just write it in the comments.

Love,

Faye