Almabtrieb Festival in Austria: What It Is and 2026 Dates

An Almabtrieb is the autumn cattle drive that brings Austrian cows down from their summer mountain pastures to the farm in the valley, and the herd walks the last stretch decorated, on foot, through a village that turns out to meet it. I joined one in the Zillertal in Austria, riding alongside 51 cows on the road from Zell am Ziller to Bruck am Ziller, and this is what the day actually looks like from the inside.

What is an Almabtrieb festival?

An Almabtrieb is the day a farming family walks its herd off the high alpine pasture and back down to the home farm for winter. Almabtrieb literally means the drive down from the Alm, the summer pasture, and it is one of the few Austrian traditions that is still an ordinary working event rather than a show put on for visitors.

When it is summer in Austria, the cows stay high in the mountains. When autumn starts, the farmers bring them home to the valley. The animals are washed, decorated and walked down over several hours, and the village meets them at the other end with food, drink and a party at the farm.

Each cow gets a Bischl, the headpiece, and an alpine cowbell. The headpieces are made and repaired by hand over months, and new ones are added most years.

When is the Almabtrieb in 2026?

The 2026 Almabtrieb season runs from mid-September into mid-October, and in the Zillertal almost every drive falls on one of two weekends: Saturday 19 September and Saturday 26 September 2026. Individual farmers pick their own date, so no two valleys move together and nothing is fixed until close to the day.

The Zillertal dates confirmed for 2026 are listed below.

1. Fügen: Saturday 12 September 2026. The drive arrives at the Kohlerhof from around 10 a.m.
2. Stumm: Saturday 19 September 2026. One of the two big Zillertal weekends.
3. Gerlos: Saturday 26 September 2026. The Zillertal Arena village runs its drive as an “Almabtrieb as it used to be”.
4. Kapfing, at the Gasteighof: Sunday 4 October 2026. One of the later valley celebrations.
5. Mayrhofen: Saturday 3 October 2026. A Frühschoppen at the Erlebnissennerei rather than a road procession.

Weather and snow on the pasture move these dates, so check the village tourist office in the week before you travel rather than booking around a date you read in spring. Once the last drive is over in mid-October the season is finished for the year and the next one starts in September 2027.

Joining the Almabtrieb from Zell am Ziller to Bruck am Ziller

I joined the Nachtschatten family at Zell am Ziller as they unloaded their cattle, and followed the herd by mountain bike for the first hour and a half of a 23 km (14.3 mi) walk. A taxi picked me up at 6.30 in the morning, which felt early until I found out what time the family had started.

The farm’s day begins shortly after midnight. Hannes, the farmer, gets up to milk the cows and start work, and around 4 a.m. the family has breakfast together before loading the animals onto a truck down to Zell am Ziller. They do not walk that upper stretch from Gerlos because it is too dangerous for the cows in the dark.

At Zell am Ziller the big cows were lined up along the fence while the young ones roamed the field. They all got a last scrub, or rather their bums did, so they would look their smartest before the decorations went on.

The decorations are not assigned in advance. It takes a while for the farmer and his helpers to work out which cow will carry which headpiece and which bell, and the decision is made on weight: the little ones get a small bell and a light headpiece, the strongest cows get the biggest and heaviest.

The helpers are family and friends. The farmer’s daughters lend a hand, but only the men and boys put the decorations on, and you see why immediately. It takes three men to dress a big cow, and even the small ones can put up a fight if they have decided they are not ready.

Unloading and dressing 51 cows took about three hours. Bystanders told me the animals were calmer that year than the year before.

At around 10 a.m. the gate opened and the cows walked out onto the road, where the first spectators were already waiting. Some of them, the cows rather than the spectators, did not know where to go at first, but they followed the road once the farmers guided them.

I rode out in front of the parade, took photos as it passed, rode ahead again and did that for about an hour and a half. It became clear very quickly that this is a proper event. People hung out of their windows or waited on the street to see the bells and headpieces go past.

And you could hear them coming. After a while I put paper tissues in my ears because the bells were so loud.

The herd stopped at a town fountain to drink, and the farmers were met with a platter of beer in Stumm. They kept going for another four hours. I rode ahead to the hotel because my data was not working and I wanted to post photos on my Facebook page and Instagram stories, and because I had eaten a small breakfast at 6 a.m. and a snack at 9 and was starving.

Google Maps said the whole ride from Zell am Ziller would take an hour and ten minutes. I had already covered part of it with the cows, so I reckoned on 45 minutes. It took a little over an hour and I arrived soaked in sweat. It would be mainly flat, they said. Well, it was Austrian flat.

I got back to the farm at the time the parade was due and then waited about an hour, because the herd was running late. Then the bells announced them.

By that point a crowd had gathered on both sides of the street and in front of the farm. People stopped eating and drinking to welcome the farmers and the cattle onto the valley field, and then stepped out into the grass to photograph the cows, which was easy, because they were too tired to move. One lay its head down; another watched its two-legged visitors with no interest at all.

Afterwards everyone went up to the farm for drinks, traditional Austrian food and talking. I could not follow a word of the Zillertal accent and most people there spoke little English, so I was lucky that Wiepke and Tineke were around. Both Dutch, they had moved to Belgium more than 30 years earlier and had been staying with the Nachtschattens on annual Zillertal trips for 15 years. They explained what they had learned about the Almabtrieb and pointed out who was who.

I left at 5.30 p.m., because a taxi was picking me up at 4.50 the next morning for Munich Airport. My time in the Zillertal was short, but I will not forget my first Almabtrieb.

Can you attend an Almabtrieb as a visitor?

Yes, anyone can watch an Almabtrieb, and the party at the end is open to the public. Visitors line the route to photograph and film the procession, and nobody is stopped from doing it.

The party is also where the farmers make some money from the day, because they sell the food and drink there. Turning up, eating and buying a round is the useful thing a visitor can do.

You do not need a ticket, a tour or an invitation. You need to know the date and be standing on the right road.

What to pack to attend an Almabtrieb

Pack for a long morning standing outdoors in autumn sun with no shade and no shop. If you only want to watch the parade pass, bring a refillable water bottle, snacks, sunscreen and sunglasses.

If you want to follow the parade on foot for any distance, wear proper shoes. The route runs on tarmac and gravel and the herd moves slowly for hours.

Where I stayed in the Zillertal

I stayed in two places on this trip: the Hotel Maria Theresia in Gerlos on the first night, and the Gasthof Hotel Post in Strass im Zillertal on the second, about 3 km (1.9 mi) from the Zillerbruggerhof where the cows came home.

Both are family-run four-star houses with breakfast and their own restaurants. Because I had to leave before breakfast started twice, both made me a breakfast to go with sandwiches and fruit, which mattered more than it sounds on a 4 a.m. start.

Gerlos puts you at the top of the valley near the pastures, Strass puts you at the bottom near the motorway and the Zillertalbahn train. For an Almabtrieb, pick the end of the valley where the drive you want to see actually finishes. You can check prices and availability for the Hotel Maria Theresia and for the Gasthof Hotel Post in Strass.

Book early for an Almabtrieb weekend. The valley fills up for those two September Saturdays.

How to get to the Zillertal

Fly or drive to the Zillertal, because the train only gets you as far as the valley floor. The Zillertalbahn runs up the valley from Jenbach on the main Innsbruck to Munich line, but it will not take you to most of the pastures, farms and villages you will want to reach.

Innsbruck, Salzburg and Munich are the usual airports. For an overview of flight options, check Trip.com.

From the airport you either take a shuttle and then taxis, or you rent a car, which is much easier on a day when the drive finishes at a farm on a back road. To compare car rental deals, have a look at DiscoverCars, which compares more than 900 rental companies and guarantees to match a lower price.

Park well away from the route. Roads along an Almabtrieb are closed to traffic while the herd is on them.

Almabtrieb FAQ

Is the Almabtrieb the same as the Gauderfest? No. The Gauderfest is a spring festival in Zell am Ziller held at the start of May, while the Almabtrieb is the autumn cattle drive in September and October. They happen in the same village and are often confused.

Why are the cows decorated? The decoration marks a summer in which no animal was lost on the mountain. Where a farm has had a death in the family or lost an animal, the herd traditionally comes down undecorated.

How long does an Almabtrieb take? The walk itself takes most of a day; the herd I followed covered 23 km (14.3 mi) and was on the road from about 10 a.m. until the late afternoon. The party at the farm runs into the evening.

Do I have to pay to watch? No. Watching the procession from the road is free, and so is walking into the party at the end, where you pay only for what you eat and drink.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The four tips below come from following a Zillertal Almabtrieb for a day and from the 2026 dates.

1. Bring something for your ears. Fifty-one alpine cowbells at close range are genuinely loud. I ended up putting paper tissues in my ears about an hour in.
2. Watch from the route, not the finish. The herd moves slowly enough that you can see it, walk ahead and see it again, while the farm at the end gives you one arrival and a long wait. My herd arrived more than an hour behind schedule.
3. Do not plan your day around a driving or cycling time. The valley road looks flat on a map and is not. A ride Google Maps put at an hour and ten minutes took me longer, uphill, in the heat.
4. Target 19 or 26 September 2026 if your dates are flexible. Almost every Zillertal drive falls on one of those two Saturdays this year, so one weekend can cover several villages.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her trip to the Zillertal in Tyrol, where she joined the Nachtschatten family’s cattle drive from Zell am Ziller to Bruck am Ziller. The team covers Austria for independent travellers, including the Zillertal hotels, flights and car rental worth booking around an Almabtrieb, and updates this page when the season’s dates change.