Zermatt Unplugged 2027: Dates, Lineup, Tickets and Travel Guide

Zermatt Unplugged 2027 takes place from Tuesday 6 to Saturday 10 April 2027 in Zermatt, in the Swiss canton of Valais, according to the organiser's save-the-date notice ¹. Zermatt Tourism lists the same five evenings, each with a main concert at 20:30 at the festival tent on Bodmenstrasse 14 ¹⁴.

The festival keeps a fixed shape rather than a fixed date: five days from Tuesday to Saturday in the first half of April, while the pistes beside the Riffelberg stage are still in use ¹⁰. Recent editions show the pattern ⁵:

• 2024: Tuesday 9 to Saturday 13 April ⁵

• 2025: Tuesday 8 to Saturday 12 April ⁵

• 2026: Tuesday 7 to Saturday 11 April ⁵

• 2027: Tuesday 6 to Saturday 10 April ¹

The 2026 edition brought Placebo, Herbert Grönemeyer, Tom Odell, Emeli Sandé and Rea Garvey to Zermatt, alongside dozens of smaller acts and DJs ⁵. The 2025 line-up included UB40, Amy Macdonald, MIKA and Clueso ⁵.

For 2027 the organiser has set out a staged release ²:

• Main acts announced: 3 December 2026 ²

• 48-hour pre-sale opens: 14 December 2026 at 13:00 ²

• General ticket sale opens: 16 December 2026 at 13:00 ²

• Unplugged (Discovery) acts announced: February 2027 ²

The festival grew out of a singer-songwriter idea. Thomas Sterchi, Marco Godat and Heinz Julen founded it, with the backing of ABBA's Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Deep Purple's Jon Lord, and the first edition took place in 2007 ⁴. The 2008 edition still ran only in the Vernissage; the Marquee Stage came afterwards, opened by Jon Lord and his band Gemini ⁶.

Tip: Arrive by Monday if you want a quiet evening to collect your wristband: in 2026 the Taste Village desk opened on Monday from 15:00 to 19:00, a day before the first concert ³.

Zermatt Unplugged runs on two kinds of entry: a concert ticket for one evening show, or the Unplugged Pass for the five days of smaller stages and after parties. Neither includes the other, so most visitors who come for a headliner also buy a pass ³.

A concert ticket covers one of the five ticket stages ^{3 6}:

• Marquee Stage: 2,200 assigned seats in the round tent on the Obere Matten ⁶

• Vernissage: 500 standing places in the club designed by Zermatt artist Heinz Julen ⁷

• Sunnegga: 110 seats at 2,288 m, with aperitif and Valais buffet ⁸

• Winkelmatten Chapel: 48 seats, unamplified, with an optional dinner ⁹

• Loft: seated, with free choice of seats, from Thursday to Saturday ³

A concert ticket also lets you into the Taste Village and the Foyer on the day of that concert ³. Everything else needs the Unplugged Pass: the Taste Village on other days, the Foyer, Campfire, Alex, Blue Lounge, Cervo, Riffelberg, Blues Club, Manud, Streetside, Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club and the after parties ^{3 15}. For the 2026 festival the pass cost CHF 85 for all five days, or CHF 50 for local residents with the Blue Card ³.

Prices for 2027 concert tickets are published when the general sale opens on 16 December 2026 at 13:00 ². The 48-hour pre-sale is reserved for buyers of festival packages, such as the Hotel and Unplugged Pass package from Zermatt Tourism ¹⁵.

Buy only through the official ticket shop, Ticketcorner or Raiffeisen MemberPlus; the organiser warns against resale sites such as Viagogo, and bought tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded ³. Wheelchair users should book Marquee and Vernissage seats in writing through the festival's ticketing address so that access to the seat can be arranged ³.

For more space, the festival sells Comfort Access to a lounge area in the Foyer with seating, a welcome drink, its own cloakroom and toilets, and the best view of the Foyer concerts; in 2026 it opened from 17:30 to 02:00 ³. Comfort Access does not include a Marquee concert ticket ³.

Tip: At Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club the Unplugged Pass gives standing room only; a seat costs an extra CHF 40 to reserve ¹¹.

The Marquee Stage of Zermatt Unplugged stands on the Obere Matten, about five minutes on foot from Zermatt railway station, at roughly 46°01′N 7°45′E ^{6 18}. Zermatt is car-free, so the last leg is always by train or licensed taxi ¹⁶.

Zermatt Tourism gives these journey times by rail ¹⁶:

• Zurich Airport to Zermatt: about three and a half hours ¹⁶

• Geneva or Basel airport to Zermatt: about four hours ¹⁶

• Trains into Zermatt: every half hour ¹⁶

The usual route runs on the main Swiss network to Visp or Brig, where you change to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn up the valley ¹⁸. Sion Airport is about 85 km away, while Zurich and Geneva airports are each about 250 km away ¹⁸.

Drivers stop at Täsch, because the road from Täsch to Zermatt is closed to private traffic and unauthorised drivers face large fines ¹⁶. The Matterhorn Terminal in Täsch has 2,100 covered parking spaces, with more than 1,000 extra places from private providers ¹⁶. From the terminal, shuttle trains leave every 20 minutes and reach the centre of Zermatt in 12 minutes ¹⁶. Electric cars are no exception: they also stop at Täsch ¹⁶.

Inside the village, almost everything is walkable. Stage distances from the station, as published by the festival ^{6 7 9 11}:

• Marquee Stage, Obere Matten: 5 minutes ⁶

• Vernissage, Hofmattstrasse 4: 5 minutes ⁷

• Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Bahnhofstrasse 31: 5 minutes ¹¹

• Winkelmatten Chapel: 20 minutes ⁹

Visitors coming from Italy can cross the glacier instead: the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing links Cervinia and Zermatt by cable car, and luggage transport can be booked with it ¹⁶.

For the late return, the 2026 festival ran a special train from Zermatt to Visp and Brig at 23:45 from Tuesday to Thursday and at 00:45 on Friday and Saturday ³.

Tip: If you drive, the Matterhorn Terminal has luggage trolleys that roll straight onto the Zermatt shuttle, which saves dragging cases across the Täsch car park ¹⁷.

A day at Zermatt Unplugged starts at midday and does not end until the early hours: Discovery Acts play from noon to midnight across the village and ski area, and the after parties run until about 04:00 ³. The festival describes the Discovery Acts as central to its identity, with 24 bands and musicians, mostly from Switzerland, playing more than 50 concerts ³.

Here is how the 2026 festival day was timed, a fair guide to 2027 until the new timetable appears ³:

• 12:00: Alex and Blue Lounge sets, Taste Village opens ³

• 13:15, 16:45 and 18:45: Taste Village stage sets ³

• 14:30: Riffelberg set on the Gornergrat line ^{3 10}

• 16:00: Campfire set with grilled cervelats ^{3 13}

• 19:45: Marquee doors open; concert from 20:30 to 22:00 ³

• 21:15: Vernissage concert, after party from 22:15 ³

• 22:30 and 00:00: Blues Club sets ³

Two concerts happen away from the main village. The Sunnegga Sessions take a special SunneggaExpress funicular up to 2,288 m for an aperitif and Valais buffet; in 2026 the funicular left at 19:15, music began at 20:45 and the return ride was at 22:15 with the artists on board ⁸. At the Winkelmatten Chapel, built in 1607, the audience of 48 gathers outside for an aperitif at 19:00 before an unamplified set at 19:30 ⁹.

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, the London venue founded in 1959, opens a pop-up version at Bahnhofstrasse 31 for the festival, with two shows a night in 2026 at 20:30 and 23:00 ^{3 11}. Entry there is limited to over-18s ³.

Food is part of the programme. The Taste Village beside the Marquee Stage gathers chalets run by Zermatt restaurateurs, tasting stands and a Discovery stage, with Swiss Meat and Swiss Cheese as village partners ¹². At the Campfire Stage the afternoon set comes with cervelats, the Swiss sausage, grilled over the fire ¹³, and the Sunnegga concert includes an aperitif and a Valais buffet before the music ⁸.

Families get a Kids Village next to the main tent, open Tuesday to Saturday from 12:00 to 18:00 in 2026, with crafts and a hand-powered carousel ³.

Tip: The smallest rooms fill first. At Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, for example, Unplugged Pass entry is subject to capacity, so arrive before the doors open ¹¹.

Early April in Zermatt is late winter with spring sun: at the weather station at 1,638 m, April averages a high of 9.8°C and a low of −0.7°C (1991–2020 normals) ¹⁸. April brings about 39.9 mm of precipitation over 6.3 wet days, including around 21.3 cm of fresh snow, and roughly 146.8 hours of sunshine ¹⁸.

That means warm terraces at lunchtime and frost on the walk home. The mountain stages are colder still: Sunnegga sits at 2,288 m ⁸ and the Gornergrat at 3,100 m ¹⁷. The Marquee Stage is heated, and the festival says jackets and blankets are not needed inside ³.

Crowds build through the week. The headline concerts are the busiest moments: 2,200 people leave the Marquee at once when the show ends ⁶. Midweek afternoons on the Unplugged Pass stages are calmer than Friday and Saturday, when Streetside adds extra late sets ³.

What to pack for Zermatt in April:

• Warm layers and a down jacket for the walk back after midnight

• Waterproof boots with grip for snowy or icy lanes at Winkelmatten

• Sunglasses and high-factor sunscreen for the Riffelberg terrace

• A small bag: cloakrooms are only in the Vernissage and the Foyer ³

• A hat and gloves for the Sunnegga return ride at night

• Skis or a lift pass if you plan morning runs before the noon sets

The slopes are still in use during the festival, which is part of its appeal: the Riffelberg stage sits right next to the pistes ¹⁰, so a morning on the pistes and the 14:30 set fit into the same day, as the 2026 timetable showed ^{3 10}.

Tip: Leave dogs at home. They are not allowed anywhere on the festival grounds or in any festival location ³.

Täsch is the most practical base outside Zermatt for the festival, because the shuttle train runs every 20 minutes and takes 12 minutes to reach the centre of Zermatt ¹⁶. Visp and Brig, further down the valley on the main Swiss network, work too if you can live with the special late train ^{3 18}.

Zermatt itself puts every stage within walking distance, which matters at 02:00 when the Taste Village closes ³. The village has a year-round population of about 5,800 ¹⁸, and a five-day festival in its small centre stretches the supply of rooms. Zermatt Tourism sells a Hotel and Unplugged Pass package for 2027 that starts at CHF 349 and comes with access to the 48-hour concert pre-sale ¹⁵. The package covers the Unplugged Pass for the whole festival, but not the main concerts ¹⁵.

Pick your base by what you plan to see:

• Near Bahnhofplatz: closest to the wristband desk and the Vernissage ^{3 7}

• Around the Obere Matten: next to the Marquee and the Taste Village ^{6 12}

• Winkelmatten: quiet, 20 minutes on foot from the station, near the chapel stage ⁹

• Täsch: 12 minutes by shuttle, with the car park for drivers ¹⁶

• Visp or Brig: cheaper rooms, but tied to the 23:45 or 00:45 special train ³

Zermatt is not cheap. Swiss news site blue News reported for the 2025 festival that some visitors budgeted up to CHF 2,000 for a long weekend, including travel, accommodation, tickets and food ¹⁹. Bars at the festival take only cards and Twint ³.

Locals who live in Zermatt, Täsch or Randa and hold the Blue Card enter the Taste Village and the Foyer free for the whole festival ³, so expect to share the chalets with residents as well as visitors.

Tip: Book your room before the line-up release. The pre-sale on 14 December 2026 goes to package and club buyers, and accommodation bought then also secures the earlier ticket window ^{2 15}.

At Zermatt Unplugged your phone handles the timetable, the map and most payments, so mobile data matters more than at a single-stage concert. The official app, free for iPhone and Android, lists every stage's running order for each day and the details of each act ³. An interactive online map shows the 17 stages spread through the village and the ski area ³.

Tasks that need a connection during the festival:

• Checking the app timetable when Discovery Acts move between stages ³

• Paying by card or Twint at the cash-free bars ³

• Showing the ticket confirmation at the wristband exchange ³

• Checking Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn departures for the late train ³

• Sharing your location when friends split between Riffelberg and the village ¹⁰

Mountain stages stretch a group out. The Riffelberg stage is a 30-minute ride on the Gornergrat Bahn ¹⁰, and Unplugged Pass or concert ticket holders could buy a special CHF 40 return to the Gornergrat in 2026, including the ZOOOM the Matterhorn multimedia show ¹⁷. That ticket is sold only at the Gornergrat Bahn office in Zermatt ¹⁰.

Video uses the most data. Short clips of the Sunnegga or Marquee sets add up over five days, while maps, messages and payments use far less. Coverage details for a Switzerland data plan are on the Switzerland eSIM page.

For emergencies, the festival keeps medical staff on site around the clock ³. The Swiss numbers are 112 for the European emergency line, 117 for police, 118 for fire, 144 for an ambulance and 1414 for Rega air rescue ²⁰. Lost property is held at the Welcome Point opposite the Vernissage until the festival ends ³. Anyone who experiences or sees harassment or a crossed boundary can turn to the security staff on site or the Welcome Point team, under the festival's awareness policy ³.

Tip: Carry a power bank. The cloakrooms in the Vernissage and the Foyer are the only places to leave a heavy jacket, so a phone that also films the Sunnegga ride has to last from noon to the after party ³.