Interlaken is known as having the longest new years celebration in Switzerland. What starts on New Year’s Eve on the 31st, continues on the 1st with a refreshing dip & new year’s dip and dive in the lake plus free music festival finishing only on the 2nd of January with “Harder-Potschete”a wooden mask procession through Interlaken. Celebrate an unforgettable New Years in Winterlaken wonderland…..
Touch the Lake then touch the Mountains
The free ‘touch the mountains’ music festival on the 1st of January in the centre of Interlaken has been going on for years and is a fantastic way of starting the new year. But an even better way to start the new year would be to touch the lake, with a refreshing New Year’s Dip & Dive at the lake of Thun, before touching the mountains!
Celebrate hard on New Years Eve in one of Interlaken’s many bars and parties while dancing and swaying your way into the early hours. Then wake up just before lunch to join a fun group of people that go out to touch the lake with a refreshing dip into the lake of Thun for a fresh start of the New Year! Bring a colourful beanie to stay warm, eat some hot pea soup and toast with new friends on a great start of the new year at this ‘Touch the Lake’ event.
The tradition to dive into the freezing sea or a cold lake is known around the world as the New Year’s dive in English, ‘Nieuwjaarsduik‘ in Dutch and even as ‘Einen guten Wasser-Rutsch ins neue Jahr‘ in German. The latter roughly translates to ‘have a good water slide into the new year’! To keep up with this refreshing global tradition you can now join Interlaken’s first New Year’s dip & dive!
Program Interlaken New Year’s Dip & Dive January 1st, 2023
11:30 Gathering & Preparation at the shores of Lake Thun
12:00 New Year’s Dip & Dive
12:15 Delicious Dutch Pea Soup, Campfire, Toast into the New Year & Warm-up dancing
A logical next step is to enjoy the fantastic and free Touch the Mountains music festival. Join 30.000 other people in the centre of Interlaken in more New Year’s celebrations from 14:00h (2pm) and finish the day off by watching the traditional fireworks. What a diverse and fun way to start the New Year. Only in Interlaken!
Find all details about this fun ‘Gute Wasserrutsch ins neuen Jahr’ on our website here.
