Cultural venues in the city of Bern

The stages of Stadttheater Bern (Bern City Theatre) and Vidmarhallen offer everything the hearts of music, dance, and theatre fans desire: there are countless performances, concerts, and special events each season. The Casino Bern, where the Bernese Symphonic Orchestra plays its way through musical history, is also part of Bühnen Bern. The four-part house – consisting of Stadttheater, Casino and Vidmarhallen, which are located in an old factory in the Liebefeld neighbourhood – is the largest concert theatre of Switzerland’s Central Plateau and inspires visitors from near and far. The same goes for the restaurant “Vierte Wand”, which sits on the stage of the original Stadttheater from 1903 and attracts gourmets and culture aficionados alike.

This venue on the Aare river hosts contemporary performances, dance recitals and avant-garde pop concerts. In the 1980s, the former hydroelectric power station started establishing itself as a culture and performance centre. Today, Dampfzentrale is a meeting place for creative minds and their audience with room for experiments, debates, and discoveries. Every November, the music festival “Saint Ghetto” takes place here, bringing international stars and newcomers to Bern. And your physical wellbeing is taken care of, too: the Dampfzentrale’s elegant restaurant serves delicious treats.

Rarely do you see so much cultural diversity in such a small space. On 30 square metres, Bern’s cultural scene sings, laughs, makes music, philosophises, discusses and experiments. In 1954, the German version of Pablo Picasso’s play “Wie man Wünsche am Schwanz packt” (“Desire Caught by the Tail”) premiered in the vaulted cellar, then known as Kleintheater Kramgasse 6. Today, Ono serves up a colourful, rich cultural menu – from jazz concerts, photo exhibitions and improv theatre to PowerPoint karaoke and its well-established poetry slam event “Berner Altstadt-Slam”.

Multifaceted entertainment in the heart of Bern’s Old City: that’s what the Theater am Käfigturm offers. As its name suggests, it is located near one of Bern’s landmarks – the Käfigturm (Prison Tower). Before becoming a theatre in 1967, the building served as a studio stage for the Stadttheater, but now it is open exclusively to guest companies and artists and is a popular anchor point in Bern’s theatre agenda. The programme includes theatre and magic as well as children’s theatre and dance performances. And if you’re a fan of comedy, you can go and see the latest shows of Swiss comedians such as Stefan Büsser and Helga Schneider.

It’s the oldest music club in Bern: For almost 60 years, concerts and dance events have been held at Mahogany Hall on Klösterlistutz. The Longstreet Jazzband opened the venue in 1968 – and since then, around 5,000 concerts have taken place. Among the performers: Mani Matter, Ira May or The Pedestrians. The secret to Mahogany Hall’s success? In the listed rooms, everyone feels at home – from young to old. And the diverse concert programme, ranging from jazz and dialect pop to hard rock, offers something for every taste. A real insider tip: the open mic nights. Every second Wednesday of the month, up-and-coming artists are given a stage.

Above the rooftops of Köniz, a suburb of Bern, sits a castle. In the Middle Ages, it was home to the Teutonic Order and Bernese “Landvogt” bailiffs, and to different institutions and children’s homes in the 19th and 20th centuries. Nowadays, it’s a venue for all kinds of cultural events. Amenities include a room for civil wedding ceremonies, a restaurant, and the stages that are used and rented out by the association Kulturhof Schloss Köniz. The versatile rooms and the small courtyard are used for plays, concerts, book readings, exhibitions, and culture festivals. The large courtyard is dedicated to culture, too: in the summertime, there are concerts underneath the mighty linden tree.

Take me back to the 40s: groovy saxophones, red velvet couches, lively nights – jazz dreams come true at Marians Jazzroom. True fans will discover original posters and statues from the past few decades of jazz history. There are two concerts per evening, and you’ll frequently be able to experience internationally renowned musicians – after all, Marians Jazzroom is considered one of the best jazz clubs in the world.

Concerts, movie screenings, plays, festivals, and all sorts of events: at the Reitschule, creativity knows no boundaries. What this cultural centre has to offer is as diverse as its artists and audience. Nationally and internationally renowned musicians play in the Dachstock, there are parties in the Great Hall, the Tojo shows contemporary plays and at Sous le Pont, there’s tasty food from all over the world – and delicious “Schnipo”, schnitzel and fries – as well as cultural performances. The programme changes according to season and what the organizers feel like doing. If you like things to be a bit different, you should check it out!

You can hardly get closer to the gently flowing Aare: Restaurant Cinématte, located in the Matte district – the oldest part of Bern – sits right on the riverbank and pairs culinary delights with pure cinema enjoyment. The menu features seasonal dishes made from regional ingredients – freshly prepared and with great attention to detail, because we all eat with our eyes first. If you're just a little hungry or want to grab a bite before the screening, the bar menu offers lighter options such as cheese platters, salad bowls or soups. Add a fine Swiss wine to toast with, followed by (or preceded by) a gem of Swiss or European cinema – and your evening is complete.

It’s definitely cheerful here – because the name says it all. The inviting Heitere Fahne restaurant is located below the Gurten. After a walk up the local mountain, a colourful hodgepodge of sofas, garden chairs and who would have thought it – a “Fahne” (flag), invites you to linger. The programme is, as the “Heitere” describes itself, wild. Pizza evening every Wednesday, an extensive Sunday brunch with still-warm “Züpfe” and concerts that melt hearts. A little bird also told us about the “Räuber:innenrunde” – a roundtable where people come together to discuss a shared future. We think it’s time to discover this unique place and the dedicated people working behind the scenes.

Like most medieval towers, the Käfigturm (Prison Tower) had many different functions over time. It was erected in the mid-13th century as part of the outer city wall and later served – as the name suggests – as a prison. Since 1999, the listed building has been housing the Polit-Forum, which informs visitors about politics. In panel discussions and lectures, the concept of democracy is questioned and rethought, upcoming votes are discussed, and politicians take on the critical questions of the audience. A forum as diverse and multifaceted as Swiss politics.

The grand sandstone building next to Bern’s main station is home to the Berner Generationenhaus (Bern House of Generations). The name says it all: the Generationenhaus includes a retirement home, a day-care centre, a public playground, and the parent counselling centre of the canton of Bern. Since its opening in 2014, it has also established itself as a cultural events location with participative theatre and musical projects, exhibitions, and other events. And the in-house chapel is regularly used as a rehearsal location for the Bernese “GenerationenChor” (Generations Choir), whose 80 participants are between 20 and 80 years old. Many programme highlights are for free – and there’s no obligation to order anything.

About 70 of Progr’s rooms serve as studios for some 150 artists of all kinds. Initially, the building was meant to be temporary, but the Progr (a former “Progymnasium”, high school) quickly made a name for itself in Bern’s cultural scene. The ground floor is open to the public and a popular meeting place for the locals, with its galleries and two café-bars Turnhalle (the former gym) and Lehrerzimmer (the former teacher’s lounge). The Lehrerzimmer is a cozy place for coffee, the Turnhalle regularly hosts concerts and parties: the place that used to serve as a gym for schoolchildren has turned into one of the hot spots of Bernese cultural and nightlife.

Be it pop concerts, classical performances, or chanson and a cappella evenings: Bern is a city of music, and the intimate, familiar venue in a former chapel in Bern’s Breitenrain neighbourhood proves it. The audience comes to La Cappella to have a good laugh, too, as it is one of the best places in Bern for revues and poetry slams. After its inauguration in 1998, Bernese troubadours Irmgard Knef and Franz Hohler were among the first to perform on its stage. Uta Köbernick, Christoph Simon, Esther Hasler and Marco “Güschä” Gurtner followed in their footsteps and fill the ranks today. Also a favourite: the iconic “Slam Olymp” evenings, when four slam poets compete in four disciplines for the winner’s crown.

Theatres

• Theater an der Effingerstrasse
  A favourite with local audiences, this theatre delights with chamber plays, monologues, literary adaptations – and a top-class ensemble.

• Theater Matte
  This dialect theatre by the Aare stages everything from Anton Chekhov plays to songs by Mani Matter, blending popular appeal with artistic ambition.

• Theater Remise
  Set in a small wooden house on Laupenstrasse, this charming venue offers musicals, dance and theatre productions.

• Theater Madame Bissegger
  Once a travelling theatre, it now has a permanent stage – but remains just as wild and creative as it was twenty years ago.

Live music venues

• Sous Soul
  Culture in the heart of the city: across a total of eleven stages, Sous Soul offers a platform for concerts, readings, art exhibitions, cabaret and everything else the creative scene has to offer.

• Bierhübeli
  A legendary venue with gallery, bar and garden, offering a musical home to Swiss and international bands for decades.

• Gaskessel
  A hub of youth culture since the early 1970s, Gaskessel hosts concerts, parties and film screenings – a vibrant creative laboratory.

• ISC
  Across several floors, the ISC Club invites guests to enjoy concerts, sip drinks or play a round of table football.

Indie cinemas

• Lichtspiel
  The Lichtspiel cinematheque makes film history come alive – through screenings, workshops and classes.

• Kino Rex
  An arthouse cinema that once replaced a mainstream one: since its reopening in 2015, cinephiles enjoy curated series, auteur films and art-house gems in its two theatres.