Festival · June
Schweizer Straßenfest (Schweizer Straße Street Festival)
Despite the name, the Schweizer Straßenfest has nothing to do with Switzerland. It is the annual street party of the Schweizer Straße in Sachsenhausen, with more than 50 stands and two stages across two days in June.
No Emmental cheese, no watches, no Swiss community. The Schweizer Straße simply happens to be the name of the street, and its residents and businesses throw one large party a year. It runs about a kilometer south of the river, from the bridgehead of the Untermainbrücke to the Mörfelder Landstraße, in the middle of the Sachsenhausen district.
Locals jokingly call it the boulevard of desires, because the density of shops, restaurants and services goes far beyond basic supply. Everything you could want is on one street, which is exactly why the residents founded the Aktionsgemeinschaft Schweizer Straße in 1978 to represent local traders and keep the street strong. The association created the festival and still runs it, handing out more than 50 stand slots each year, which means longtime businesses and new arrivals stand side by side.
For a visitor the appeal is the food and the music. This is where to eat the Frankfurt canon in one afternoon: Handkäs mit Musik, the marinated sour milk cheese, Grüne Soße, the seven-herb green sauce, and Äbbelwoi, the local apple wine, alongside delicatessen items from Germany and abroad. Two stages carry live music through both days, from midday jazz and soul into evening sets. The street sits a short walk from the Museumsufer and the apple wine taverns of Old Sachsenhausen, so it combines easily with the rest of a day on the south bank.
