Harvest Festival with all your senses

Winter, spring, summer, ... - stop, autumn is not coming yet! Even though summer is slowly but surely coming to an end and the first cool nights are setting in, autumn will have to wait a little longer for us. Because here in the province of Salzburg there is still a fifth season – harvest festival. At this time of year, farm life reaches its peak amidst the alpine panorama and the abundant harvest is rewarded with a cosy atmosphere. The animals are brought down from the alpine pastures, the last produce is picked and the first leaves are already falling colourfully from the trees. Harvest festival time is here!

In Wagrain-Kleinarl harvest festival is always celebrated in abundance. Already at the individually decorated entrances to the village you notice that something’s going on. The hay and wooden figures eagerly await and bring a smile to your face. Have you already seen our village entrances? You can find out what they look like this year directly on site. :)

When you arrive in the village centre, you can already smell the delicious aromas of pumpkin soups, farmer's doughnuts and much more. Did you know that you can conjure up a pumpkin 3-course menu from pumpkins? Yes, you can even make a sweet dessert out of this all-rounder. It‘ll make your mouth water.

As every year, there a harvest festival week. From 10th to 18th September, there is a special programme of events to celebrate this fifth season. Of course, music, dance and culinary delights are not to be neglected and can be found through the entire festival week.
The week starts on Friday with culture & culinary delights. In the morning you can get to know many secret places and exciting stories on a guided cultural walk through Wagrain. In the afternoon, it's the perfect time to visit the farmers' market at the music pavilion in Kleinarl. Here you can expect not only regional delicacies, but also a variety of charming handicrafts. The evening is rounded off with a concert by the Wagrain brass band. But that's not all for traditional music, because on Wednesday it's off to the mountains again for the "Music in the Alps" series of events. This year it's up to the Kleinarler Hütte! On Thursday, the folk dance group will bring new momentum to the market square in Wagrain. However, it is unfortunately not possible to hold the traditional Pumpkin Festival and the big event of driving the cattle down safely this year. As an alternative programme, however, there will be a guided hike on Friday for the very first time through the brand new nature trail "On the trail of milk & cheese" with subsequent cheese tasting directly at the Bio from the Valley Farm!

I am already looking forward to this coming season, how about you? Why not take a look and find out more about our wide range of harvest festival events!

photo credits: Armin Walcher, Wagrain-Kleinarl-Tourismus