Detour Discotheque, a Studio 54-inspired pop-up nightclub that strives to bring “peace, love, and mirror balls to the world’s most beautiful locations,” is back for a third year—and this time the location is not just remote, it’s also nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. The three-day music festival will take place over the weekend of May 10-12, 2024, in venues across Switzerland’s Birg and Schilthorn mountains, with the highest stop right atop the latter, in the revolving mountain-top restaurant, Piz Gloria. Partiers will travel from their accommodations down below in the pretty Alpine villages of Lauterbrunnen and Mürren to the 300-person venue via four separate cable cars, a phenomenally scenic journey that takes 32 minutes each way.
While Piz Gloria will be the center of the action on Saturday, May 11, a terrace at Birg station, with Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountain views, will play host to a day party on Friday, May 10. A traditional Trinkhalle (drinking hall) outside Interlaken will be the final location on Sunday, May 12.
DJ acts include Haçienda alumni DJ Paulette, London-based Norsicaa (who played a storm at the first party in Iceland), disco re-edit collective Talking Drums, as well as some Swiss acts yet to be announced.
Detour Discotheque was born from a combination of whimsy and luck. Finding himself stuck in the Westfjords of Iceland on a writing assignment due to sudden heavy snowfall, the event's founder, DJ and journalist Jonny Ensall, was taken to an annual dance in the village hall of 300-person populated Þingeyri. He felt compelled to share the unique venue and soon, the pandemic gave him the headspace and time to pursue the idea. From the inaugural event in Iceland, over which the northern lights swirled (we were there, investigating what it’s like to go to the world’s most remote disco, busy dancing inside), the party and its growing cult following moved to the Scottish Isle of Coll in 2023. Both events sold out, the second in seconds, with guests traveling from as far as the West Coast and even Australia, purely for the love of disco mixed with extraordinary travel.
As we discovered during our Iceland trip, the disco will be the most unique element of the trip, but exploring an area you were highly unlikely to visit otherwise will be a sweet bonus. Lauterbrunnen is renowned for its green beauty and proximity to the 974-foot-high Staubbach Falls, while Mürren, a village that you pass on the way to the disco venues up at Birg and Schilthorn, is car-free. While skiing is unlikely to be on the menu in May, activities such as paragliding, hiking, farm visits, and river rafting should be, as well as a slew of Swiss restaurants with dreamy vantage points, serving all manner of fondue and rösti.
So how exactly did Jonny find the destination this time, since it’s not the sort of spot you stumble on? “I always liked the idea of opening Detour Discotheque on top of a mountain—it seemed like the obvious next step—so I spent a long time researching Alpine venues in a variety of countries,” he explains. “In the end, I went to that area of Switzerland on a hunch and was recommended the main venue, Piz Gloria. It's a revolving restaurant and a filming location for a Bond movie. The journey up in the cable car is so astonishing, it made sense straight away.”
Weekend tickets start from £199 (about $216), which includes approximately £160 (about $203) worth of cable car travel. Anyone subscribed to the Detour Discotheque mailing list will have access to an exclusive pre-sale ticket allocation from Tuesday, December 5. Lauterbrunnen is reached by train or car from international airports at Bern, Zurich, Geneva, and Basel. Train travel to Lauterbrunnen from central London takes under nine hours. A coach service will transport guests between Lauterbrunnen, Stechelberg, and Interlaken. detourdisco.com
