Our Path to Comprehensive Sustainability

“Mission Menuhin” is a broad-based initiative for comprehensive sustainability. To achieve this goal, we have defined measures that contribute to gradually reducing our CO2 emissions and raising awareness among our audience, team, and partners about responsible resource management. Some of these measures have already been implemented, such as the concert series “Music for the Planet”. Many more will follow, both during and around the Festival. Would you like to join us on this journey? Visit “Mission Menuhin” to keep up to date about new measures, projects, and progress.

As part of her concert series “Music for the Planet”, Patricia Kopatchinskaja will present several programme each year from 2023 to 2025, featuring significant works from the music repertoire of all times. The emphasis lies on the artistic exploration of climate change. In the festival edition 2024, two captivating concerts with vibrant music, paired with texts and visuals, will explore the multifaceted aspects of transformation. “Venezia and Beyond” immerses the audience in the visual tapestry of a city grappling with the threat of rising waters. Expressive images have been selected for the programme, guiding the audience through a four-century musical journey alongside cellist Anastasia Kobekina and the Kammerorchester Basel. The spectacular programme “Time and Eternity” is a collaborative creation involving Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the Camerata Bern and members of religious communities from the Canton of Bern.

The Gstaad Menuhin Festival pursues various goals with its annual children's and youth projects: By working together with local schools and their teachers, existing creative potential is integrated, both at management and pupil level. With the projects, the festival aims to utilise artistic potential and make the event low-threshold in order to extend the impact of music and art to a wider section of the population. Involving children and young people and their families in the projects also creates an identity and relationship between the population and the festival, which also arouses interest and curiosity for the festival's other concerts.

The “L'Heure Bleue” concert series as part of the Gstaad Academy offers free access to concerts in a relaxed atmosphere. Ideal for families and newcomers, it offers an insight into the world of classical music. Here, young musicians showcase their skills and are encouraged in their musical development. The concerts make music accessible to everyone and awaken the joy of art across generations - without barriers or admission costs.

The booth of sustainability partner MYBLUEPLANET illustrates the impressive connection between classical music and climate protection. Key success factors such as harmony, passion, ambition, community, commitment and intergenerational exchange are of central importance in both areas. Take the opportunity to find out more about MYBLUEPLANET's diverse projects on site and find out more about how you can get involved for a sustainable future.

In keeping with our Mission Menuhin, it is important to us to provide our audience with a few tips for travelling to the festival with as few emissions as possible and to inspire you with our tips for an environmentally friendly journey and our sustainability measures on site.
Together we want to create a sustainable festival experience, because without your contribution we will not achieve our goal of comprehensive sustainability.

It’s been three years since Anastasia Kobekina performed at our “Jeunes Etoiles” concert series on a Saturday morning in the Gstaad Chapel. Embraced by the audience, the cellist went on to win the “Jeunes Etoiles” Online Voting 2021 and has since become a regular at the Festival. What captivates is not just her exceptional sensitivity, but also her versatility across all musical styles — currently, she’s immersed in Baroque cello studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Frankfurt. Her “Venezia and Beyond” programme is a true reflection of this diversity: Anastasia Kobekina, accompanied by the Kammerorchester Basel and directed by Julia Schröder, brings four centuries of music to Saanen – from Barbara Strozzi to Caroline Shaw, including delightful compositions by Antonio Vivaldi.

As part of the Mission Menuhin the festival has been awarding tree certificates to young artists since summer 2023 thus directly involving them in our sustainability measures. Together with the local forester the Gstaad Menuhin Festival team is planting 70 trees that will make an important contribution to the sustainable development of our forests as part of the general reforestation process.

Leave the stress and parking hassles behind as you cruise to the concerts using public transport. Enjoy a 20% discount on your journey using public transportation. Find additional details about the offer and how to book on sbb.ch/gstaad-menuhin-festival. All information regarding the offer is available on sbb.ch/en.

Car Rouge stands for concert journeys that will linger on for a long time. We take you to the concerts in the Gstaad Festival Tent in a sustainable, uncomplicated and comfortable way and get you in the mood for the evening ahead with a concert introduction on arrival.

The world-famous violinist, conductor and humanist Yehudi Menuhin passed away 25 years ago today. In the mid-1950s, Yehudi Menuhin and his family discovered the Saanenland and Gstaad. He was fascinated and inspired by the elemental force of nature and the mountains. He was not only impressed by the gentle Alpine landscape of the Saanenland, but also by the meeting of French-speaking Switzerland, German-speaking culture and the nearby south with Italianità. He left a lasting legacy in the Saanenland, where he founded the legendary Gstaad Menuhin Festival in 1957.

Postal mailings are still an important part of informing our customers about the festival programme. How is this compatible with the high sustainability goals? After careful consideration with experts, we have come to the following compromise: In the past, mailings were sent in conventional paper envelopes. Due to their susceptibility to damage, we felt compelled to switch to more stable packaging.

Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy has created the new position of "Junior Sustainability Manager". The aim is to promote and implement sustainable practices within the festival. Together with experts from MYBLUEPLANET and the Executive Director, the Junior Sustainability Manager analyses operations in order to identify potential environmental impacts and develops and implements new strategies.
The ClimateLab sustainability course from MYBLUEPLANET was the starting signal for our Junior Sustainability Manager to become familiar with this role. The course, which is specially designed for trainees, provides in-depth knowledge of environmental issues, social responsibility and ecological sustainability, and we wish our Junior Sustainability Manager, Jasmin Teuscher, every motivation and success in generating a sustainable impact for the festival!

Since November 2023, Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy has reached the next level in the sustainability programme Swisstainable. The festival has therefore been newly classified as Swisstainable Level II - engaged.
The sustainability program Swisstainable unites businesses and organizations along the entire Swiss tourism sector. With our participation, we commit ourselves to continuous sustainable business development, pursue measures in the field of sustainability and thus make a concrete contribution to a sustainable Swiss tourism.

The OK:GO initiative supports swiss businesses to share information about their accessibility in order to enable people with disabilities, seniors and families with children to have an adequate journey. It does not matter whether the business is accessible or not.
All accessibility information regarding the concert venues of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy can be found on the OK:GO portal.
Further information can be found here:

In collaboration with the Fondation Juchum, around 100 people with hearing impairments were invited to the Gstaad Menuhin Festival for the concerts of 13 and 25 August.
Together with FoRom écoute, who provided magnetic loops for hearing aids, the hearing-impaired were able to enjoy two concerts with enhanced hearing quality.
Wonderful moments and an unforgettable concert experience were therefore made possible.
Find out more about magnetic loops:

For the transport of the artists and team members during the festival, together with our Official Car Partner B.I. Collection, we are working towards the gradual electrification of the Festival vehicle fleet. We also take impact on the travelling of our artists. Get an impression of the arrival of an orchestra.

On 21^st August, pupils of the Oberstufenzentrum Gstaad will take part in a full-day workshop with the projects "Expedition 2 Grad" and "Girls on Ice". This "climate day" will provide young people with up-to-date knowledge of research and an unforgettable immersive experience to dive into a virtual Alpine world and the future of glaciers.

To make the environment a little more colourful and beautiful and also to help many insects find food, we are giving our artists Seedbombs this summer - a small ball of nature that - placed on the ground without planting it - grows into a wildflower splendour.

Image: Bomsori Kim – Menuhin's Heritage Artist

At the crossroads of music and dance, “Dance on Ice” is an innovative educational project that raises awareness of climate change among children and young people through musical and dance expression.
Weekly workshops with a professional team will include lessons in music, movement, dance and rhythm, as well as information on current topics such as climate change and the influence of global warming on the glacial melt.
We keep you informed about the progress of the project as part of our Mission Menuhin.

For national and international marketing purposes related to the Festival, printed materials are used. Thanks to CO2 offsetting through ClimatePartner, all of these products are already climate-neutral. The printing is done by Hertig + Co. AG, based in Lyss, using the new environmentally certified offset printing process PURe, powered by 100% green electricity. This ensures sustainability throughout the entire product life cycle. The paper used is FSC® certified and made from wood sourced from sustainable forestry practices.

As part of the recently launched "Mission Menuhin“ initiative, Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy has embraced a profound commitment to sustainability. In MYBLUEPLANET, we have found a new partner to support and accompany us in this process. The organisation assists companies in their efforts to reduce CO2 with its ClimateActions 4 Companies programme. Concrete measures are defined, which both the organisers as well as all our employees can contribute to. We will keep you informed about these measures and how exactly we are implementing them through regular updates on “Mission Menuhin”.

Responsible action takes place at all levels, including the backstage area. Musicians, team members, and suppliers can all contribute to this effort. Firstly, we have implemented a recycling concept where materials are separated and, whenever possible, recycled. Additionally, in collaboration with our hotel partner, ERMITAGE Wellnes- & Spa-Hotel, we prioritise the use of local products and minimise packaging in our catering services. To avoid food waste, any leftover food is given to staff members right after the events.

In keeping with our “Mission Menuhin”, we work with our partner Wittwer Blumen Fleurs to supply our artists exclusively with flowers from Switzerland. For the decorations, we only use flowers and plants that are suitable for re-use or that can be given as a gift.
Thanks to our Jeunes Etoiles and Academy artists, we will help the regional forester to plant 30 trees in spring, in collaboration with our partner MYBLUEPLANET.

In video messages, Patricia Kopatchinskaja compellingly highlights how the care for nature and society resonates in major works by composers such as Schubert, Beethoven, or Haydn. She also offers a glimpse into how she will bring the composers’ ideas to the stage through completely new and innovative audiovisual performances in the concerts “Les Adieux”, “Forelle”, and “Die sieben letzten Worte” as parts of her very own concert cycle "Music for the Planet".