OpenAir St.Gallen

OpenAir St.Gallen is the June festival in the Sittertobel, on the edge of St. Gallen. The site's history page says Freddi Gagi Geiger founded it, then a hobby organiser of discos and concerts, with people who wanted a floor for bands from the region and from Switzerland, and a camp where people could talk. An obituary writes Freddy Gagi Geiger. The first was in 1977, on the Ätschberg in Abtwil. Lake Constance tourism counts 13 bands and 2,048 people. From 1981 the festival is in the Sittertobel, under the name OpenAir Festival St.Gallen, and it passed 10,000. In 1983 it reached 23,000. In 1986, the tenth, they added Musig Uf De Gass in the centre and a Friday opening, and counted 29,500. Geiger stepped back in 1994 and kept visiting the grounds. The company that runs it is OpenAir St.Gallen AG. Znaki places it at Heiligkreuzstrasse 9, in St. Gallen. The site gives the phone +41 58 225 85 00 and the mail contact@openairsg.ch.

Znaki calls the one of 25 to 28 June 2026 the 48th and says the only gap was 2020 and 2021. From 1977 to 2026, without those two years, that is 48. The same text puts about 30,000 people a day and 74 acts. stgallen24 counts 105,000 over the four days, over 30 degrees and not one drop. The close, on the Sitterbühne, was SDP. The headliners it names are Twenty One Pilots, Nina Chuba and Zara Larsson. Znaki adds Paul Kalkbrenner among the headliners. The two lists stay together. The site homepage, read on 28 September 2026, still titles 25 to 28 June 2026. stgallen24, after that weekend, announces a four-day July and a four-day pass at 239 francs. Those year digits are not printed.

The Tagblatt, signed wec, walks Friday's Hecht on the Sitterbühne. They come in on scooters, in white, with Auerbach, and they dance. They play Heicho in the middle of the crowd. There are recorder solos and flamethrowers. FC St. Gallen supporters had rewritten Mon Amour as a cup anthem. Hecht had said they would play it at the OpenAir if the club won the Swiss cup. They play it, and bring people from the crowd and FCSG players on stage. wec calls it solid and not very surprising, more a cup party than a festival concert, and still puts it among the moments that stay. Nina Chuba, in the same piece, draws more people in front of the stage than anyone. At Scooter several pyrotechnics go off. The review closes no title from those two.

Starzone, on 28 June 2026, walks Saturday. In front of the Sitterbühne, with Levin Liam and with CMAT, there is a strip of sun up to the shade line. Levin Liam sits between rap and quiet pop. CMAT, from Dublin, calls hers a sexy band, pulls out a dance, bathes in the crowd and leaves no title. Nothing But Thieves leave none either. Nina Chuba sings and dances near 30 degrees, with dancers, and the review names no piece. Scooter, with H. P. Baxxter, close the Sitterbühne: hard techno, lyrics the review calls silly, pyrotechnics and announcements in English, with no title.

On the Sternenbühne, before Scooter, Filow fills the tent. Rasenschach, which he wrote in a few hours with his community during a European championship, makes the tent jump. Bass ist geil sounds like a notice toward Scooter, and the review leaves it as the piece that is heard. Rasenschach remains the one that wins the match. Dressed Like Boys, from Belgium, play Stonewall Riots Forever on piano and, before that, tell how those riots became the pride marches. Modeselektor close that stage for the writer, with This Track Kills Facism. The review writes Facism. Floodlights, from Melbourne, duel harmonica against guitar and the chorus of the last number keeps going as they pack down. That number has no title.

Among Swiss names, Starzone names Monet192 on the Sitterbühne, Panda Lux in the tent, Solong, Baschi singing a tribute to the national team in the crowd, EDB, who have already moved from the Intro to the Sternenbühne, Jamila and Luuk closing the Intro. None of those leaves a title. The opening of that June, in another note of the same ticker, is Heera on a stage wagon they built themselves, off the Intro. Gian Trüb and Michael Schneider go with Lena Schilter on bass and Adrian Hilber on drums. After a few songs they move under the black canvas of the Intro. The last song, untitled in the note, builds the first mini mosh. Jan Delay, in the same text, asks for a Freeze game: when the music stops, the crowd holds the pose. Zara Larsson, in the Tagblatt, does a split and a dolphin pose, with six dancers, and the review closes no title. Urs, in that opening note, has come every year since 1986. The site is kept.