My favourite cultural venue: Rote Fabrik

It was Mando Diao! The Swedish rockers were the ones who took me to the Rote Fabrik for the very first time – the cultural centre situated on the site of a former silk mill on the lakeshore near Wollishofen. That was in 2005; I was around 20 years old and had only been living in the city for a few months. So I must have felt quite grown-up as I made the pilgrimage to the legendary ‘Rote’ with my sister and friends. The Mando Diao concert wasn’t my very first live gig, but one of the first. I don’t remember Mando Diao in detail anymore. But the evening must have triggered something in me, because two things have been clear ever since:

1. I love live concerts across many genres, spend a fortune every year on concert and festival tickets, and know most of the city’s concert venues as well as their respective toilet, cloakroom and bar facilities.

2. And ever since that evening, I’ve loved the Rote Fabrik. On that particular Mando Diao night, I only saw the Aktionshalle. Captivated by the alternative ‘chic’ of the Fabrik, however, I soon returned. And I discovered poetry slams in the club room, socio-political theatre performances and discussion panels in the Fabriktheater, and of course the Ziegel oh Lac restaurant, where back then clouds of marijuana and the disinclination of the waiting staff still hung in the air – neither of which exist today. 

Open-air concerts and the cinema in summer, the legendary Lethargy and events such as the Kitchen Battles by Cuisine sans frontières are further attractions that have always drawn me back to the banks of the Aare at Wollishofen. It is the diversity that still appeals to me and wins me over at the Rote Fabrik: It is not just a concert venue, but also a kitchen, bar, club, stage, meeting place, discussion forum and playground for children attending the Fabrik after-school club, as well as for graffiti artists who are allowed to spray certain walls legally and in peace. The Rote Fabrik is colourful, cheerful, loud and full of variety.

A few personal photos:

Definitely worth a try:

The Sunday brunch at Ziegel oh Lac is delicious, reasonably priced and, especially in summer, the perfect way to start the day. Followed by a dip in the lake, an ice cream and, as the sun sets, cycling back into town whistling: what more could you want?

I’ll never forget:

After the pandemic, Black Sea Dahu brought me back to life, so to speak, on the summer stage at the Rote Fabrik. It was my first concert after two years without live music.