After months of long and hard work in the vineyards and apple orchards, it is high time to celebrate the end of the vintage at the Grape Festival in the centre and the old town of Merano. Highlight of the two-day festival is the big parade on Sunday, where decorated carriages - one of them with the Apple Crown -, 60 music bands as well as folk groups and Schützen move in the streets of the town. Starting from the Venosta Gate, the parade proceeds along the Corso della Libertà road and the Lungo Passirio Promenade, and ends at the Municipal Theatre of Merano.

They are beautiful for the eye: the hand-embroidered traditional costumes, the blond Haflinger horses and the proud faces of the participants. Youth bands give concerts on the terrace of the venerable Kurhaus, at the Piazza Terme square, at the Kallmünz parking space and along the Via Cassa di Risparmio road. The market booths of the MM, however, the Merano Market, sell on these two festival days natural products from South Tyrol. A first edition of the Merano Grape Festival, the Traubenfest Meran, took already place in 1886, whereas the traditional carriage with the Apple Crown made of South Tyrolean apples has been part since 1949.