The Almabtrieb Cattle Drive

Cattle spend the summer on high pastures and come down in September or early October, and the descent is a working event that villages turn into a festival. The animals are washed and dressed on the morning of the drive: a carved and flowered headdress for the lead cow, heavy bells that only come out for this, ribbons and small mirrors. Custom in many valleys holds that the decoration is left off entirely if there was a death on the alp that summer, and the herd comes down plainly. In the village a market, music and food stalls wait at the arrival point. Alpine transhumance, the seasonal movement this completes, went onto the UNESCO intangible heritage list in 2019.

What to look for

• The headdresses - carved and flowered crowns on the lead animals, made fresh each year.
• The bells - large ceremonial bells kept for the day, audible long before the herd appears.
• The village market - stalls, cheese from the summer alp dairies and music at the arrival point.
• The plain descent - herds that come down undecorated, following the custom after a death.

When to go

Dates fall between the middle of September and early October and are set by the weather and the grass, so each village confirms only a week or two ahead. The herd usually arrives late morning. A bad spell can bring the cattle down early and unannounced, without any of the decoration and without the festival that goes with it.

Things to know

This is livestock on a public road, which means noise, dung, dust and a few nervous animals; it is not a parade behind barriers. Village car parks fill by early morning and the valley roads jam. The wait between the announced hour and the herd actually appearing can be long, and the festival part is usually a beer tent with a band.

Nearby

Villages across Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg hold their own drives within days of each other.