High up on the slopes above the luxe ski resort of Gstaad, electronic music thunders out of the speakers. It’s so loud it feels like the mountains are shaking apart – perfect fodder for the partygoers currently dancing the night away amongst the ice and snow.
This is Caprices, a three-day, multi-weekend festival that takes place in Switzerland’s picturesque Bernese peaks over the last weekends in March. In other words, a perfect time to combine days of skiing and nights of partying.
As far as venues go, a mountaintop can’t really be beaten – I was hooked. What could be more tempting than three days of excellent music, enjoyed at a heady 1,500ft?
The festival makes full use of the setting, with things kicking off at 2pm every day. Caprices awaits a short gondola ride from Eggli Station in Gstaad’s centre – not your usual mode of transport, and rolling off the gondola and straight into the festival proper is a good taster for the night ahead. This is also the festival’s first year in the new venue (having moved from Crans-Montana), adding an extra element of novelty to the whole event.
For electronic music fans, there’s really no better place to be. The festival makes a habit of booking some of the best names in the business – from across the UK and Europe. Accordingly, the place was full to bursting most nights, but there was a reward for early arrivals in the form of the gorgeous views of the Swiss Alps – as well as the chance to watch the sunset light stream through the windows of the various stages as the place filled up with eager partygoers.
In terms of space, it’s small but compact, boasting three stages as well as several bars to kick back and relax in. There’s the main stage, which plays host to some of the festival’s tentpole names – including Bedouin, Mita Gami and DJ Tennis, who (fresh from releasing his new fabric presents LP) closed out the last night on Sunday with a relaxed, melodic tech house set.
There’s the smaller, funk-inclined CTRL Stage, which was invariably packed every night with people eager to dance the night away to artists like Chez Damier and B.Love – or even F.O.E, which saw Guti, Sarkis, Kanova and Madnax all take to the decks to noodle on their guitars and mix the sound in with some fun backing beats.
On Fridays and Saturdays, the festival opened up the Ridge Stage, too: a wide-open room topped with rings of flashing lights, where Jamie Jones appeared for a mega three-hour set, Craig Richards performed a B2B with Call Super and Francesco del Garda played the sunset slot, followed by RPR Soundsystem.
Factor in the festival’s drinks offering of beer, champagne and house cocktails – as well as the salespeople going around handing out cheese samples, the chance to buy rosti on-site (unique to any festival I’ve ever been to) – and it’s no wonder that the party went onto 4am, when the CTRL Stage finally closed its doors.
Off the mountain, there was plenty more to do for those not nursing their hangovers. The nearby Huus Hotel (which comes with the added bonus of being the place many artists stay) had a spa and a fabulous restaurant, but was also located just 20 minutes from both the slopes and Gstaad itself, and a 20 minute walk from the picturesque, chocolate-box village of Saanen.
The Gstaad area also boasts over 200km of skiing, snowboarding and hiking trails, including one that’s situated on an actual glacier, for those adventurous enough to try it out. I didn’t, but catching the train to the nearby village of Schönreid meant I could roll out of the station and onto the skilifts in roughly five minutes (and then back in the evening, to get ready for a night of dancing).
With all that going on, no wonder I ended the weekend in need of some serious downtime. But it was worth it. Cheese, techno, mountains and skiing: when can I go again?
Caprices Festival will return in 2027; sign up for tickets here
