Antigel Festival Geneva — Winter Music & Arts Festival Guide

The Antigel Festival is the reason a lot of Geneva residents stop dreading February. Instead of building one festival site and running it for a long weekend, Antigel takes 40-plus concerts and shows, 500-plus artists, and scatters them across roughly 50 venues in 26 towns around Greater Geneva. The 16th edition runs 5-28 February 2026. The catch, and the whole point, is that the venue is the headline as much as the act: a village church becomes a chamber-music hall, a public swimming pool in Cologny turns into a swim-and-dance club, a 1960s gymnasium hosts a techno headliner, and an industrial hall on the Rhône runs six weekends of electronic nights.

If you only know Geneva as a tidy, expensive financial city, Antigel is the counter-argument. This is the most detailed English-language guide I can write to it: what it is, why the venue idea matters, the 2026 line-up, how to survive a night that crosses three suburbs, and whether the pass beats single tickets. For the wider calendar, start with the Geneva events and festivals pillar; to build the days around it, the Geneva trip planner and the list of things to do in Geneva both help.

01 — Antigel Festival 2026 at a glance.

• Dates: 5-28 February 2026. 16th edition.
• Pre-opening: Sofiane Pamart at the Salle des Assemblees (UN headquarters), 24 January 2026.
• Programme: 40+ concerts, 13 shows, 6 in-house “Made in Antigel” creations, 500+ artists, 50 venues, 26 towns.
• Geographic scope: Geneva canton, neighbouring Vaud, and Ain (France) – the Greater Geneva region.
• Festival Pass: CHF 110 adult, CHF 90 reduced. Individual tickets free to about CHF 50.
• Disciplines: music (electronic, jazz, classical, rap, pop, experimental), dance, theatre, sport and wellness, clubbing, food pop-ups, light installations.
• 2026 headline artists: Jeff Tweedy, Sebastien Tellier, Apparat, Anna von Hausswolff, The Divine Comedy, Baxter Dury, Miossec, Odezenne, Earl Sweatshirt, Marc Ribot, Dirty Three, Whitney, Midlake, Tamino, Bombino, MC Carol, Durand Jones & The Indications, Adam Green, Herman Dune, plus opening-night Sofiane Pamart.
• Average attendance: around 57,000 visitors across the four weeks.
• Programme drops: early December at antigel.ch.

02 — What is Antigel? Geneva’s festival that refuses to sit still.

Most festivals book a venue. Antigel books a region. It was founded in 2011 by the OLA events team, the same crew now behind Transforme, the hip-hop and vocational-training festival. The premise was deliberately contrarian: rather than pack everyone into one hall, spread the programming across the municipalities of Greater Geneva, and pick rooms that are not normally music venues. The logic was both practical, since smaller communes have empty halls in February, and political, since culture should not only happen in the city centre.

Sixteen editions on, the idea has held. Antigel runs about 40 concerts and 13 shows over four weeks each February, employs 500-plus artists, reaches 26 communes across Geneva canton, neighbouring Vaud and Ain in France, and pulls in roughly 57,000 people. The CHF 110 Festival Pass keeps it affordable; individual tickets run from free to mid-range. Big international names headline next to Swiss acts, regional musicians, and original “Made in Antigel” commissions.

The venue concept is hard to explain until you feel it. A Marc Ribot set lands differently in a converted bunker. Anna von Hausswolff’s organ-and-voice work carries a different weight when she is actually playing a 17th-century church. Club Piscine, where you swim, dance, then swim again across a four-hour DJ set with 200 people in a public pool, is the sort of programming that simply does not happen in conventional concert halls.

03 — When it happens: 2026 dates and the festival calendar.

The 16th edition runs 5-28 February 2026, a four-week window with shows spread across the period. The busiest evenings are Fridays and Saturdays across all four weekends, with selected weekday nights filling in the middle.

Specific 2026 dates worth knowing:

• Pre-opening event: Sofiane Pamart (French pianist) at the Salle des Assemblees, UN, 24 January 2026 – the formal pre-festival concert.
• Opening night: 5 February 2026, programme to be confirmed but expect a major commissioned performance.
• Closing night: 28 February 2026.
• Antigel Run: usually one of the Saturday evenings in Parc La Grange – a night run wired with light and music.
• Club Piscine evenings: typically Saturday nights at Bain-Bleu Cologny, around four nights across the festival.
• Grand Central electronic clubbing: six weekends in an industrial hall, often running into early March.

The programme drops in early December at antigel.ch. Tickets for the premium shows – Club Piscine, headline international acts – sell out within hours of that release.

04 — The venue concept: why where matters.

The venue list is, in effect, the programme. A non-exhaustive selection of recent and 2026 venues:

• Alhambra – historic central Geneva music hall, used for chamber and indie shows.
• Victoria Hall – the city’s main classical-music venue.
• Bain-Bleu Cologny – public pool and wellness centre, home of Club Piscine.
• Piscine du Lignon – Geneva’s biggest public pool, used for swim-and-perform nights.
• Salle des fetes de Carouge – community hall in the bohemian quarter, medium-sized concerts.
• Temple de Carouge – Protestant temple, used for sacred and ambient music.
• Eglise de Bernex, Eglise d’Aire-la-Ville, Temple de Vandoeuvres – village churches for sacred, classical and folk programming.
• Salle communale de Veyrier, Confignon – suburban community halls, often mid-week shows.
• Centre Sportif Sous-Moulin – sports centre that becomes a music venue.
• Institut Florimont (Lancy) – school theatre.
• Pavillon ADC – Geneva’s contemporary dance venue.
• Theatre du Forum Meyrin – large-stage theatre in the suburb.
• Salle des Assemblees ONU – UN headquarters hall, used for selected high-profile concerts.
• Musee d’Art et d’Histoire (MAH) – the main art museum, used for performance art and special concerts.
• Theatre Am Stram Gram – children’s theatre, used for family shows.
• Maison Saint-Gervais, Comedie de Geneve – performing-arts and contemporary-theatre venues.
• Espace Velodrome (Plan-les-Ouates), M-Parc, Portail de la Science (CERN), Fondation Aigues-Vertes, Usine a Gaz Nyon – sports halls, event spaces and converted industrial sites.
• Grand Central – Antigel’s own pop-up club, an industrial hall hosting six weekends of electronic nights.

Each room brings its own physical character. Programming the venue alongside the artist is the festival’s signature, and it is why two nights at Antigel rarely feel the same.

05 — Programming pillars: what Antigel offers.

Music is the biggest pillar, and the genres are deliberately all over the map:

• Indie rock and folk – Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Whitney, Midlake, The Divine Comedy, Herman Dune.
• Electronic and ambient – Apparat, Anna von Hausswolff’s organ-and-electronics work, the Grand Central club nights.
• Jazz and experimental – Marc Ribot, Dirty Three.
• French chanson and pop – Sebastien Tellier, Baxter Dury, Miossec, Adam Green, Odezenne.
• Hip-hop – Earl Sweatshirt, MC Carol.
• World music – Bombino (Tuareg desert blues), Tamino (Belgian-Egyptian).
• Soul – Durand Jones & The Indications.
• Classical and contemporary – Sofiane Pamart’s solo piano, sacred music in churches.

Dance – the Bal choregraphique, in its third year in 2026, turns contemporary dance into a participatory format; Pavillon ADC programmes new commissions.

Theatre and performance – several Made in Antigel commissions per festival.

Sport and wellness – the Antigel Run is the signature night run; yoga sessions land in odd venues; Club Piscine pairs swimming with clubbing.

Clubbing – Grand Central runs six weekends of electronic music, the winter heartbeat of the Greater Geneva scene.

06 — Signature experiences worth planning around.

Club Piscine at Bain-Bleu Cologny

The most photographed Antigel event of any year. A public pool, RTS Couleur 3 DJ sets, swimmers and spectators mixing, four-hour evenings where you swim, dance, swim, dance. Capacity is limited and it sells out within hours of the programme release. If I could only do one Antigel night, this would be it.

Grand Central electronic clubbing

Six weekends, an industrial hall, international DJs, the techno-and-electronic end of the programme, running late weekend after weekend.

The Antigel Run

A night run through Parc La Grange wired with light installations and music. Free or low entry, open to all levels.

A church concert

The Temple de Carouge, Eglise d’Aire-la-Ville or Temple de Vandoeuvres concerts are the festival at its most distinctive: sacred-music acoustics, candles, the cold of a 17th-century stone building, and big-name artists in a room that seats a few hundred.

The Salle des Assemblees, UN

Concerts inside the UN headquarters hall – Sofiane Pamart’s pre-opening concert on 24 January 2026 sits in this very Geneva diplomatic space.

07 — Beyond the city: the Greater Geneva map.

Antigel is a regional festival to its core. Performances land across:

• Geneva centre – Alhambra, Victoria Hall, MAH, Comedie de Geneve, Maison Saint-Gervais.
• Carouge – Salle des fetes, Temple de Carouge.
• Cologny – Bain-Bleu (Club Piscine).
• Plan-les-Ouates – Espace Velodrome.
• Lancy – Institut Florimont.
• Vernier – the Lignon area (Piscine du Lignon, Antigel HQ, M-Parc).
• Onex – Centre Sportif Sous-Moulin.
• Meyrin – Theatre du Forum.
• Veyrier, Confignon, Bernex, Aire-la-Ville, Vandoeuvres – village halls and temples.
• Nyon (Vaud) – Usine a Gaz.
• Aigues-Vertes – foundation campus, plus selected venues in Ain (France) across the border.

The spread is the point, but it also means logistics. If you want two or three shows in one night, plan the route before you leave the hotel.

08 — Tickets, passes and how to book.

Option	Price	Notes
Festival Pass adult	CHF 110	All scheduled shows, all four weeks
Festival Pass reduced (students, AVS, AI)	CHF 90	Same access with proof of eligibility
Individual concert tickets	Free to CHF 50	Headline shows toward the top end
Club Piscine (limited capacity)	about CHF 25-40	Sells out within hours
Grand Central club nights	about CHF 20-30 per night	Six weekends, single or weekend tickets
Sofiane Pamart pre-opening	about CHF 30-50	UN venue, ticket required separately

My booking strategy: the programme lands in early December at antigel.ch, so sign up for the newsletter beforehand. Buy the Festival Pass first if you plan on four or more shows, because that is where it starts to pay off. Grab Club Piscine, the other Bain-Bleu nights, and the headline international acts within the first hours of release. Standard tickets stay on sale until each event fills, and a limited number of door tickets sometimes turn up on the night.

09 — Getting to suburban venues: the TPG and Leman Express playbook.

Because the festival is spread out, evening transport matters as much as the ticket. What I would keep in mind:

• Geneva Transport Card – handed out free at every hotel reception, it covers TPG buses, trams, the Leman Express regional trains within Canton Geneva, and the Mouettes water taxis, for the whole family. It is essential for any Antigel night; the full rules are in our Geneva Transport Card guide.
• Night Express – Antigel partners with the Leman Express to run extended late service back into the centre after suburban shows.
• Useful TPG lines – Bus 21 (Onex and Plan-les-Ouates), Bus 11 (Cologny direction), Tram 14 (Lancy and Onex), Tram 15 (Nations), Tram 18 (Meyrin and CERN). For the wider network, see the Geneva public transport guide.
• P+R parking – Secheron, Bachet, Etoile and P+R Bernex let you park free with a transport ticket if you are driving in.
• Antigel shuttle buses – run on some evenings between the centre and harder-to-reach venues like Aigues-Vertes and Aire-la-Ville.
• Taxis – TaxiPhone 022 331 41 33, or Uber and Bolt. Demand surges on Antigel evenings, so expect a wait.

10 — What to wear and what to expect.

Antigel runs in early-to-late February, when Geneva sits around 7C by day and 0C at night, and the Bise wind can knock the felt temperature down another 8-10C. A few practical notes:

• Industrial venues run cold – Grand Central is a converted hall, so layers are essential.
• Church venues run very cold – stone temples never fully heat. Bring a scarf and a warm jacket.
• Club Piscine – you need swimwear, a towel and a change of clothes. Lockers are provided.
• Theatre venues are heated, so normal Geneva winter-evening clothes are fine.
• Between-venue moves – the Bise on a tram platform in February is brutal, so pack a windproof shell.
• Comfortable shoes – some shows mean standing for hours, and some venues sit a short walk from the bus stop.

11 — The Antigel galaxy: OLA, Transforme and the team behind it.

Antigel is run by the OLA events team, the same crew behind Transforme, the hip-hop and vocational-training festival. The Antigel HQ sits at 51A Route du Bois-des-Freres in Le Lignon, handy to know if you need to collect tickets or sort out a booking in person.

Its main partners are Canton de Geneve, Ville de Geneve, the Association des communes genevoises (ACG), Loterie Romande and Superbock. That heavy cantonal and municipal backing is a big part of why the festival can programme this ambitiously and still keep prices low.

12 — A first-timer’s three-night plan.

Friday – a concert in central Geneva. A medium-scale show at the Alhambra, Salle des fetes de Carouge, or Maison Saint-Gervais. Easy to reach, with dinner beforehand at one of the spots in our where to eat in Geneva guide. The standard concert format gives you the festival’s musical core.

Saturday – Club Piscine at Bain-Bleu. If you can get tickets, this is the defining Antigel night: swim, dance, repeat. The wraparound format makes it social and genuinely memorable. Take Bus 11 from the centre.

Sunday afternoon or evening – a church concert in a suburb. The Temple de Carouge, Temple de Vandoeuvres, or Eglise d’Aire-la-Ville. Acoustic, intimate, atmospheric, and the least-common form of festival programming you will find anywhere.

That run gives you the festival’s three distinct modes – straight concert, immersive experience, and sacred space – across three evenings. Pick a base near the centre using our where to stay in Geneva guide so the late trams are short.

13 — Why locals love Antigel.

Ask anyone in Geneva who cares about culture what they do in February and they will mention Antigel. It has become a fixed point on the local calendar: the festival pass people buy the day after the December programme drops. The reasons stack up.

1. The venue concept – finding Vernier, Plan-les-Ouates or Bernex through Antigel changes how you see Greater Geneva.
2. Density – 40-plus concerts and 13 shows over four weeks means you can build a personal festival.
3. Cross-disciplinary curation – yoga, contemporary dance, jazz and techno all on one pass.
4. The anti-grey-February philosophy – the name means antifreeze, and the festival exists to push back against the worst weather month.
5. Affordability – a CHF 110 pass for 40-plus concerts is a genuinely good deal, and many single shows are free.
6. The Club Piscine moment – the swim-and-dance night at Bain-Bleu exists nowhere else.
7. International quality at regional scale – Jeff Tweedy, Earl Sweatshirt and Apparat in the same programme as village-temple chamber music.

14 — How Antigel pairs with the rest of Geneva winter.

An Antigel weekend slots neatly alongside the rest of a Geneva winter:

• A Bains des Paquis sauna day on the lakefront – covered in our Geneva outdoor activities guide.
• A ski day-trip – Saturday slopes at Les Houches or Les Gets, evening Antigel show. See the same outdoor guide for the nearest resorts.
• Museum afternoons at Patek Philippe, the CERN Science Gateway, the MAH or the Red Cross museum – start with our Geneva museums and culture guide.
• Fondue dinners at Cafe du Soleil, Edelweiss or Les Armures – our pick of the best fondue in Geneva covers the rest.
• The Mont Saleve cable car for the sea-of-clouds trick when fog sits on the city.
• The Lux light festival across the Old Town, which runs late January into mid-February alongside Antigel.

For the full picture of the season, the Geneva events and festivals pillar maps out what else is on.

Frequently asked questions.

15 — Related Geneva guides.

Keep planning with the Geneva events and festivals pillar, the Geneva trip planner, our list of things to do in Geneva, where to stay in Geneva, and the best places to eat.