What's on in Innsbruck, Austria through the year

Peak crowds — Four Hills ski jumping, Christmas markets

• Festival

  Four Hills ski jumping

  2–5 Jan · usuallyMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  The Bergisel leg of the Four Hills tournament lands in the first days of January, inside the city rather than out in a resort. Beds go early and the trains from Munich are standing room. Source ↗

• Festival

  Tyrolean Fasnacht

  20 Jan – 25 Feb · usuallyCarnival

  The weeks before Lent, when the valley villages bring out masked runs with bells and switches and the city holds its own parade on the Tuesday. Several of the big village processions only happen every few years. Source ↗

Still on: Foehn wind (1 Oct – 31 May (usually)), Christmas markets (15 Nov – 6 Jan (usually)), Avalanche season (1 Dec – 30 Apr (usually)), Ski season (5 Dec – 15 Apr (usually))

Peak crowds — travelers describe it as peak season, Semester (winter) holidays in Austria

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Tyrolean Fasnacht (20 Jan – 25 Feb (usually)), Foehn wind (1 Oct – 31 May (usually)), Avalanche season (1 Dec – 30 Apr (usually)), Ski season (5 Dec – 15 Apr (usually))

Busy — Easter holidays in Austria, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in March.

Still on: Foehn wind (1 Oct – 31 May (usually)), Avalanche season (1 Dec – 30 Apr (usually)), Ski season (5 Dec – 15 Apr (usually))

Busy — Easter holidays in Austria, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

• Closure

  Between-seasons shutdown

  20 Apr – 25 May · usually

  Between the last ski day and the first walking one the lifts stop, the huts are shut and a good share of the hotels close for maintenance. The same gap happens again in November. Source ↗

Still on: Foehn wind (1 Oct – 31 May (usually)), Avalanche season (1 Dec – 30 Apr (usually)), Ski season (5 Dec – 15 Apr (usually))

Busy — Pentecost (Whitsun) holidays in Austria, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in May.

Still on: Between-seasons shutdown (20 Apr – 25 May (usually)), Foehn wind (1 Oct – 31 May (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Opening

  Alpine huts open

  20 Jun – 30 Sep · usuallyTrail seasonBook early

  Staffed Alpine Club huts run from about the summer solstice to late September, which is the window for anything multi-day above the treeline. Beds are reserved, not turned up for. Source ↗

Busy — Summer holidays in Austria, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Festival of Early Music

  24 Jul – 30 Aug · usuallyMajor festival

  Five weeks of baroque opera and concerts in the Hofburg's Giant Hall and the courtyard at Ambras, running since the 1970s. The one thing that fills the city's beds in summer for a reason other than the mountains. Source ↗

Still on: Alpine huts open (20 Jun – 30 Sep (usually))

Busy — Summer holidays in Austria, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Alpine huts open (20 Jun – 30 Sep (usually)), Festival of Early Music (24 Jul – 30 Aug (usually))

Busy — Summer holidays in Austria, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Almabtrieb cattle drives

  10 Sep – 10 Oct · usuallyHarvest

  The herds come down off the high pastures through the side valleys in September, the lead cows in headdresses, and each village makes a morning of it with a market. Source ↗

Still on: Alpine huts open (20 Jun – 30 Sep (usually))

Busy — Autumn holidays in Austria, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Foehn wind

  1 Oct – 31 May · usuallyWind seasonRisk

  The valley is the textbook case: a dry downslope wind that arrives warm, strips the snow off the lower slopes in a day and turns the approach into the airport into the roughest in the Alps.

• Opening

  Stubai glacier opens

  5 Oct – 30 Nov · usuallySki season

  The glacier above the Stubai valley starts turning lifts in October, months before anything in the valleys, and it is the only skiing within reach of the city until December. Source ↗

Still on: Almabtrieb cattle drives (10 Sep – 10 Oct (usually))

Busy — Christmas markets, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Christmas markets

  15 Nov – 6 Jan · usuallyChristmas & New YearCrowded

  Six markets, the oldest of them squeezed under the Golden Roof in the medieval lanes and the largest out on the Marktplatz. Most run to Epiphany rather than stopping at Christmas. Source ↗

• Festival

  Krampus and St Nicholas runs

  28 Nov – 8 Dec · usuallyChristmas & New Year

  In the first week of December masked Krampus groups run the streets of the villages around the city with cowbells and birch switches, ahead of St Nicholas on the sixth. Loud, physical, and not aimed at small children. Source ↗

Still on: Foehn wind (1 Oct – 31 May (usually)), Stubai glacier opens (5 Oct – 30 Nov (usually))

Peak crowds — Christmas markets, Christmas holidays in Austria

• Hazard

  Avalanche season

  1 Dec – 30 Apr · usuallyClosures

  The Tyrol bulletin runs daily all winter and a big dump shuts the side-valley roads and sometimes the Brenner for hours. Off-piste here is avalanche terrain from the top station down, not a slope apart from it. Source ↗

• Season

  Ski season

  5 Dec – 15 Apr · usuallyBook early

  Nine areas on one pass and a cable car from the middle of town up to the Nordkette, so the skiing starts at the end of a tram line rather than a transfer. The valley resorts open in December.

Still on: Foehn wind (1 Oct – 31 May (usually)), Christmas markets (15 Nov – 6 Jan (usually)), Krampus and St Nicholas runs (28 Nov – 8 Dec (usually))