Grape Festival in Merano 2013

The Grape Festival which takes place in Merano is a historic event, which takes place from 18th to 20th October 2013.

Merano celebrates fall with the authenticity of local traditions!


127 years have passed from the first edition, but since then the Grape Festival, or rather the closure of the harvest, has remained a fixture for the people of Merano who, for the occasion, pay tribute to one of the products that best represents South Tyrol: the grapes.

Friday, 18th October, through the symbolic cutting of a bunch, at 12.00 a.m. on the Terrace of the Kurhaus, the event will start with concerts and performances.

The part of the city involved is the centre, and shops and the locals of the Arcades will prepare the typical autumn snack, the Toerggelen, made of new wine or must, chestnuts, speck and mountain cheeses. In Via Galilei, instead, on Saturday morning, there will be the farmer’s market with local products.

Even in this edition there will be the Little Market that, in addition to presenting the typical autumn products, will exhibit craft objects and typical dishes of South Tyrol.

As every year, the heart of the festival will be the long Sunday procession that will start at 2:15 p.m. from Porta Venosta and will proceed along Via delle Corse, Corso Libertà, Passeggiata Lungo Passirio, Ponte Teatro, Piazza Terme, to end in Via Garibaldi.

Protagonists of the parade will be marching bands and floats that will be prepared according to the centuries-old tradition: the giant grape carriage (“Kundschafterwagen”), the “Crown of Apples” and the city’s coat of arm carriages. This year, a carriage dedicated to chestnuts (“Keschtnriggl”) represents a change compared to the past. Another peculiarity is the fact that the carriages will be pulled by Haflinger horses, a breed of mountain horses originating from Avelengo.

The Grape Festival is for all the people of Merano, adults and children, a very special event. An evidence of this are the testimonies of Kathrin Holzknecht and Josef Goegele.

Kathrin is part of the band of Merano and plays the oboe, an instrument so far not included in the parade, so with great emotion states: “... so far I have taken part in the role of vivandière, carrying flowers, for example.

This autumn, however, I will play the flute and therefore I will parade for the first time playing”. Josef Goegele, however, has been participating in the parade of the Grape Festival since 1956, when he was a child, and also in the next edition will be present with the “Crown of Apples” carriage of Marengo.