We plan to be in Switzerland 9/13-9/19 of 2021 and I would love to attend a cow decent festival! I have had a hard time trying to find one on the internet. Does anyone know of any scheduled? My itinerary is not set, so we could accommodate the location. Thanks!
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7027 posts
Did you check the links on Rick Steves website? Also if you know what towns you'll be in or near you can google their websites. When typing 'cow descent' parade or festival be sure to spell 'decent' correctly. I'm sure the cows are decent during their descent. :) No insult intended, just funnin' with you.
Posted by
Switzerland
383 posts
Some of these have been cancelled already, but seems like there are a few happening (fingers crossed). Some are before or after your trip though. There may be little information at the moment because there is hesitation about whether events/festivals like this will still be able to go ahead. Many local festivals where I live have already been cancelled through Sept/Oct.
Here's a link from Switzerland Tourism that might help: https://help.myswitzerland.com/hc/en-us/articles/213130229-Where-can-I-experience-the-spectacle-of-cows-descending-from-the-Alpine-pastures-into-the-valley-
You can then add a date filter (abgesagt means cancelled)
Here is one that might work for you:
(Appenzellerland) https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/events/alpine-descent-and-farmers-market/
Posted by
84 posts
We went to Switzerland a few years ago at the end of September with a desire to see a cow parade. I researched thoroughly and found it difficult to find a schedule. It seems that the descent can vary from town to town and depending on the weather. We had a rental car and in driving around we “accidentally” ended up in the middle of a few. It was a cool experience. One of my favorite photos was of my son, who raised and showed Brown Swiss, trying to communicate with the Swiss farmer about his cows. I will try to look back at my notes and see if I can message you names of towns we found them in.
Posted by
Narberth, PA
1226 posts
Hopper's weblink looks really informative. It looks like many of the parades take place over the weekend,
Are you only in Switzerland or possibly also in the Tirol or Bavaria?
If you look at the events at the myswitzerland link, you can see some different terms for the parades: Désalpe and Alpabzug. Additional terms are Almabtrieb and Alpabfahrt. You can try searching on these different words for different locales.
I was able to watch a parade in Mutters outside of Innsbruck about 10 years ago. The cows seemed to love posing for photos at the end of the parade, when they reached their winter "home". I hope you locate something.