Seasonal · Salzburg
A Hundred Passen and No Ticket
Which Salzburg town runs on which night in December 2026, what a Perchtenlauf is against a Krampuslauf, and the last train home.
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Table of contents
The Austrian national inventory of intangible cultural heritage holds one Perchten entry for Salzburg. It is the Gasteiner Perchten, inscribed in 2011 and carried by the Gasteiner Perchtenverein, and those runs happen once every four years between New Year and Epiphany. The last were January 1 and January 6, 2026. There is no Krampus entry for Salzburg in the inventory at all.
Two things follow for anyone planning a December trip. The famous, protected thing is not available, and the thing that is available every year is younger and less official than English-language coverage suggests. Michael Greger of the Salzburger Landesinstitut für Volkskunde on the idea that Perchta descends from a Germanic goddess: "Das ist eine Erfindung von Jacob Grimm. Das ist schon längst dekonstruiert." Salzburgwiki calls the Krampuslauf "eine neuzeitliche Erscheinung." Austria-Forum's folklore reference dates the modern Krampusperchten custom to about 60 years ago, and the Alt Gnigler Pass was founded in 1966.
What December 2026 does offer is a calendar of real runs, most of them free to stand at, across a city and a set of valleys where roughly 100 Passen move through the villages on December 5 and 6 alone. Regional dates are still being added through November.
One practical warning before the dates. A run is a 2-hour outdoor block in the dark at around freezing, and the rules for standing at one are published by the Passen themselves rather than by any tourist office. The most important of them is that you never grab a Krampus by the horns. The mask's weight sits on the wearer's head and neck, and in Saalfelden in December 2022 a 14-year-old performer was taken to the hospital with a neck injury after a spectator pulled her mask backward by the horns.
Krampus and Perchten are not the same thing
The distinction English coverage collapses, and the one the whole calendar turns on.
A Krampuslauf belongs to Nikolaus. It runs around December 5 and 6, and in its older form a Pass is one Nikolaus with a basket carrier, usually an angel, and at least four Krampusse going house to house. The figures are horned, masked in carved wood, hung with bells, and they carry switches.
A Perchtenlauf belongs to the Rauhnächte, the nights after Christmas. It is a different calendar, a different set of figures, and in Salzburg city in 2026 it falls on December 21. Schiachperchten are the ugly ones and Schönperchten the beautiful ones, and the scholarship is clear that Schönperchten are documented only from the 19th century with the Schiachperchten arriving afterward as their counterpart.
The vocabulary shifts as you move. In the Pinzgau a run is a Krampusrummel rather than a Krampuslauf. Kramperl turns up inside the heritage listing for a figure in a Perchtenlauf, so even the official taxonomy does not hold cleanly. Tuifl is Tyrolean and not Salzburg vocabulary at all.
AWhat a Pass is made of
That is the composition Gastein's own tourism board gives for a Pass, and it is the older shape of the custom, the one that went house to house rather than down a closed street.
Seeing it laid out is the fastest way to understand what a Krampuslauf is a descendant of. The saint is the point of the visit. The Krampusse are his escort, and the switches they carry belong to a Nikolaus play rather than to a horror film.
Note what is absent from a street Lauf: the basket, the angel, and in most cases the saint himself. The big town runs are the part of the tradition that grew, and Salzburgwiki calls the Krampuslauf "eine neuzeitliche Erscheinung."
BThe Gasteiner Perchten, and why you cannot see them
Inscribed on the Austrian national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in 2011 and carried by the Gasteiner Perchtenverein. The entry itself describes the figures: "Schleifermandln, Hanswursten, Hexen, Kramperl und Schnabelperchten," with around 30 Kappenträger.
It runs on a four-year cycle on two days between New Year and Epiphany, one in Bad Gastein and one in Bad Hofgastein. The most recent were January 1, 2026, in Bad Gastein and January 6, 2026, in Bad Hofgastein. On the stated cycle the next falls in January 2030, though that is arithmetic rather than a published date.
This is worth knowing before booking, because it is the Salzburg custom with the official standing, and it is not what a December trip will show you. What December shows you is the Krampuslauf, which has no heritage listing in Salzburg at all. The only inventory entry with Krampus in its title is the Öblarner Krampusspiel, in Styria.
- Next
- January 2030 on the stated four-year cycle. Not a published date.
Keltenmuseum Hallein
The museum ran a winter exhibition, Krampus & Co, on the carving behind Krampus and Perchten masks, with traditional motifs beside contemporary ones. Its exhibition page records something the folklore accounts skip: in the prince-archbishopric era, miners and brewhouse workers carved objects as a sideline.
A caution worth stating before a trip is planned around masks. The Salzburg Museum's Volkskunde collection at Monatsschlössl Hellbrunn holds historical Perchten and Krampus masks, and it is a seasonal museum open spring to autumn. It is shut during Krampus season. There is no dedicated Krampus museum in the Salzburg region, and the Krampus museum in Kitzbühel, Tyrol, is closed with no new location announced.
Check the museum's current program before traveling. The Krampus & Co pages carry a February 2025 date, so that edition has closed.
- Admission
- Open daily 9am to 5pm. Adults 9.50 euros, reduced 7.50 euros, ages 7 to 26 4.50 euros, children under 7 free.
What is confirmed for 2026, and what is not
Times carry the organizer's own caveat: "Alle Zeiten sind ungefähre Angaben und können sich kurzfristig ändern."
Outside Salzburg city, Salzburg24 publishes a province-wide list and keeps adding to it through the season. Anyone booking now is booking on the city calendar and treating the villages as a bonus.
No street run in this section publishes an admission price. Indoor events do: the Stiegl-Krampus Show, a Krampuskränzchen at the Stiegl-Brauwelt on Saturday, November 28, 2026, from 7pm to 11pm, charges 10 euros per person.
Krampuslauf, Christkindlmarkt
The one to build a trip around. It runs through Domplatz and Residenzplatz while the Christkindlmarkt is open, which means the square is already under market crowds before the Passen arrive.
Three sources agree on the date and the 7pm start. The association's own calendar gives 7pm to 8:30pm and marks the times as approximate. The market's own program says the run is expected at 7pm, and salzburg.info lists it from 7pm. Salzburg24's province list, updated October 28, gives 1pm for the same date, which none of the three supports.
Worth knowing that the timing has moved before. In 2025, the same market ran its Krampuslauf from 6:30pm to 8pm, so treat the 2026 figure as the organizer's current intention rather than a fixed hour.
Perchtenlauf, Christkindlmarkt
If the point of the trip is to understand the difference rather than to see one run, this is the second half of it. Same square, same organizer, a different set of figures and a different calendar.
The time has moved substantially. In 2025, this ran from 12:45pm to 2pm, in daylight. For 2026 it is published as an evening event at 7pm. That is a large enough change to confirm before booking a date around it.
Krampuslauf Maxglan, Stieglbrauerei
Two and a half hours, which ties Zentrum im Berg for the longest block on the city calendar, and an earlier start than the Domplatz runs. December 8 is a public holiday in Austria, so the day itself is free, although the next morning is a working day.
The route starts at the Rochushof on Rochusgasse and runs by Franz-Huemer-Straße and Bräuhausstraße to the Stiegl-Brauwelt in Maxglan, west of the old town. Trolleybuses 1 and 10 stop at Bräuhausstraße, about a 10-minute walk from the brewery, and the Salzburg Card covers the trolleybus network.
Krampuslauf Zentrum im Berg
The useful thing about this one is the hour. It runs in the afternoon on the same day as the Domplatz Krampuslauf, and it is the only run on the calendar that starts in daylight.
It is scheduled to finish at 4:30pm, and Domplatz starts at 7pm. Two old town runs by other Passen fall in between. The Barmstoana Perchten run in Linzergasse from 5pm, with the meeting point given as the Festungsgasse valley station. The Salzburger Falkenpass runs from 5:30pm on a loop from the Festspielhaus through Bürgerspitalplatz, Getreidegasse, Alter Markt, and Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse. Salzburg's tourist board lists both, and neither lists an end time.
51. Gnigler Krampuslauf
The fifty-first running. In 2025, the Gnigl run drew more than 10,000 spectators, and standing at a run that size is a different proposition from standing at a village one.
The association gives the venue only as Gnigler Hauptstraße, with no start point, and says to check its page again after 5pm on the day. Salzburg24 and the salzburg.info event listing give 6:30pm instead of the association's 7pm, and salzburg.info names the route: groups assemble on Turnerstraße, then walk Linzer Bundesstraße to Schillinghofstraße.
Three valleys, and one of them is a trap
Two of these are worth the journey and one of them will strand a reader who does not check the return before going.
The Gastein valley, December 5 and 6
The largest thing happening in the region on the anchor weekend, and the least organized in the way a visitor expects. Between 80 and 100 Passen move through Bad Gastein, Bad Hofgastein and Dorfgastein, starting at about 4:30pm. The valley's tourism board gives 80 to 100, and the Gastein resort page says more than 100. December 5 is the town centers and December 6 is the outlying parts.
There is no venue to stand at and no published per-village start time or route for 2026. The Gastein pages describe the custom rather than a timetable.
The children's Krampus groups run a week earlier. No dates are published.
Do not confuse any of this with the Gasteiner Perchtenlauf. That is the heritage-listed one, it runs every four years, it is a January event, and the last were January 1 and 6, 2026.
- Date
- December 5 and 6, 2026, processions from about 4:30pm
Hallstatt, December 5: an overnight, not a day trip
Read those two times together before booking anything. The run at Marktplatz is listed on December 5, 2026, with drinks from 5pm, the show at 7pm, and St. Nicholas at 8pm; one regional listing gives 6pm to 11pm instead. Admission is free. The ferry operator's own timetable, which is valid on that date, puts the last departure from Hallstatt Markt to the railway station at 5:45pm and labels it LETZTE ABFAHRT.
The bus alternative does not help. On the 2025/26 winter timetable, the last Saturday bus from Hallstatt Lahn, line 544, leaves at 5:33pm, so check the December 2026 times once the winter timetable is published.
A visitor who travels to Hallstatt for this run is staying the night. That is a fine trip, and it is a completely different trip from the one most people think they are booking.
- Date
- Saturday, December 5, 2026, evening, Marktplatz. Listings give starts between 5pm and 7pm. Free.
- Last ferry
- 5:45pm from Hallstatt Markt to the station, marked LETZTE ABFAHRT on the operator's timetable valid to December 13, 2026
Hallein: canceled in 2025 and again in 2026
The Halleiner Krampuslauf in the Altstadt had run for 20 years under the Igonta-Pass. It was canceled for its date of November 30, 2025, after responsibility for events above 2,000 attendees moved from the town to the Bezirkshauptmannschaft and the new requirements left too little planning time. The organizers' own wording: "Es wäre weder im Sinne der Besucher noch der Mitwirkenden, eine Veranstaltung unter Zeitdruck durchzuführen."
The Igonta-Pass had said it would aim for the first Sunday of Advent 2026. On October 12, 2026, Salzburg24 reported that the Altstadt run will not be held this year either. This time the group gave no official hurdle as the reason: after more than 20 years, it is withdrawing as organizer to make room for a younger generation. Mayor Alexander Stangassinger said a run in 2026 is no longer feasible, that a possible new organizer has come forward, and that he hopes for an Altstadt run in 2027.
Hallein is still worth the trip for the Keltenmuseum. The Igonta-Pass's mask exhibition ran from October 23 to 25, 2026, and is over. Salzburg24's province list shows a smaller run in Rif, a district of Hallein, on Saturday, November 28, 2026, at 6pm.
The nearest runs on the anchor night are in Puch on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at 7pm, and in Kuchl the same night at 7:30pm, both from Salzburg24's list.
- Status
- Canceled for 2025 and for 2026. The organizers withdrew, and the mayor hopes for a 2027 return.
- Stops at one address
- Stops, in order
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7 stops. Select a pin to see what it is.
Last updated November 6, 2026. Hours, prices, and event details change, and every practical fact above links to the page it came from.
The premium expansion is rechecked every week for readers who own it. Opening times, prices, and event details are read again from the pages linked above, and anything that has moved is updated here.
Official pages
- Salzburger Schiachpercht'n und Krampusse, 2026/27 calendarSalzburger Schiachpercht'n und Krampusse
The association's own dates, times and venues, and the only place the 2026 city calendar is published in full.
- Christkindlmarkt: Krampus, Nikolo und PerchtenSalzburger Christkindlmarkt
The market's own program, which marks its times provisional and adds the December 6 Nikolo and children's Krampus.
- Krampus and Percht in SalzburgTourismus Salzburg
The tourist board's list, useful because it names two further December 5 city runs belonging to other Passen.
- Gasteiner KrampuslaufGasteinertal
Where the December 5 and 6 pattern and the 4:30pm start are published, along with what a Pass is made of.
- ÖBB journey plannerÖBB
The place to confirm a specific December date, because the printed timetable footnotes do not say which trains run daily.
- Stiegl-Krampus Show, Stiegl-BrauweltStiegl-Brauwelt
The brewery's own listing: November 28, 2026, 7pm to 11pm, 10 euros per person.
Primary documents
- Perchten in Gastein, Austrian inventory of intangible cultural heritageOesterreichische UNESCO-Kommission
The national inventory entry, inscribed 2011, which is the source for the four-year cycle and for the fact that no Salzburg Krampus entry exists.
Reporting and reference
- ORF Salzburg on the canceled Halleiner KrampuslaufORF Salzburg
The report carrying the organizers' own statement on the 2025 cancellation and their plan to aim for first Advent 2026.
- Alle Krampusläufe 2026 in SalzburgSalzburg24
A province-wide list of 2026 runs that Salzburg24 keeps adding to, and the source for the smaller runs in Hallein, Puch and Kuchl.
- Salzburg24 on the 2026 Hallein cancellationSalzburg24
Reports that the Altstadt run will not be held in 2026 and that the Igonta-Pass is withdrawing as organizer.