Mission festival

We have started this festival season with the Mission Festival in Riedholz, Switzerland. Usually, I don't share our festival 'adventures' here, but this one was held in such a cool location that it would be a pity not to show you around.

I must admit that I wasn't too happy when we were leaving home because the forecast didn't look good, and I didn't want to spend all day in the rain. In the end, we were lucky as it was clouded, but it didn't rain, and we only had a bit of drizzle from time to time.

It took us about 2 hours to get to the location. We could hear the music long before we arrived, and my mood was getting better and better 😊 There were many cars, and we had to park quite far away, so we had to walk a bit to get there. It was cool as we could explore the surroundings. The Mission festival is a day festival, hence you can start as early as 11AM, but we arrived around 5PM. We planned to stay for a couple of hours, but in the end we left after 9PM. We had so much fun!

Let me show you around...

The festival is held in a former cellulose factory from the 19th century. However, long before that there was a bathing establishment in this place. I like the idea of repurposing the areal instead of letting it stand empty to slowly fall in decay. There are many events held each year, and you can also join a guided tour which is held a few times a year.

On the way to the factory we walked through the maze of random spaces decorated with graffiti...

Some spaces were filled with water with stone pathways around them...

I have no idea what is the purpose of this space, but I can imagine it is refreshing during hot summer days.

There were also many tunnels, some of them a bit scary, and let's be honest here - not smelling too good 😊

We crossed the river through an old railway bridge...

If you look closely you will see that the river is brown on the left side and blue/greenish on the right side. It is because this is the place where two rivers come together.

And here we are!

The entrance is right behind this bar. There were not many people here so early, but it was full when we were leaving back home.

We didn't have to wait long to exchange our tickets for badges. We purchased tickets with food and drinks included, so we didn't have to worry about it.

And we're in! There are so many murals and graffiti - I'm sure that the artists enjoyed themselves while working here.

There were multiple layers from where you could approach the stages and food locations. In the beginning, we just walked around trying to absorb the atmosphere.

There were also many random sculptures (at least to me) - this horse is a memento to the Carnival which is so popular in Switzerland.

I would climb up this tower if it had been accessible...

This seemed to be the most popular staircase. People kept going up and down, up and down. I tried to follow the movement, but it made me dizzy 😊

This is really the best party location that I've ever seen...

Look at this mural!

A gigantic metal spider scaring people entering the smallest stage...

The main stage was not very big, but it was right at an amphitheatre, so many people could dance there anyway.

We went closer for a moment, but it was so crowded that we quickly walked up again...

This was my favourite stage, I loved the decoration...

I always find it funny when people come to a festival and don't dance, just stand around drinking beers - most of those people were doing exactly that.

One stage was inside of a former production hall - here we enjoyed some cool laser shows.

This looks like a random photo at first, but if you look closer you will see people on the left side. At first, it was strange to see people walking right above your head, but then it was fun to see those random footprints from one side to another 😊

I can't bring you the atmosphere and music, but I hope that you could at least enjoy the photos of the location.

We had so much fun dancing all afternoon although it is a bit strange to party when it's still daylight 😊 And the food was good too! We had to wait for about an hour to get it, but it was worth it.

See you next time...