Festival des Jardins Métissés

The Festival des Jardins Métissés: where art dialogues with nature

Nestled in the upper Thur valley, at the foot of the Vosges mountains, Wesserling Park is the largest park classified as a Historic Monument in Alsace. Every year, from June to November, it hosts the Festival des Jardins Métissés, a unique event that combines contemporary landscape creation, art, and industrial textile heritage in an enchanting setting. More than 80,000 visitors come each year to discover these ephemeral creations.

Breathtaking ephemeral gardens

The principle of the festival is as simple as it is poetic: each edition invites teams of landscape architects, visual artists, photographers, architects, and students to design ephemeral gardens around a theme renewed each year. The creations, which are artistic, playful, and sensory, flourish in the different areas of the park — remarkable vegetable gardens, Mediterranean terraces, French-style gardens, and romantic undergrowth — to create a surprising and immersive journey.

Over the editions, themes have drawn from the imagination of tales, travels, mythologies, and popular culture (in 2025, « Les Jardins du Chat Botté »), inviting visitors to rediscover the garden as a space for dreaming, playing, and contemplation.

A park steeped in history

Wesserling Park is inseparable from the textile history of the Thur valley. A former domain of textile industrialists, it preserves remarkable industrial buildings, including the Grande Chaufferie (Great Boiler House) converted into an exhibition space, as well as the Textile Museum which traces two centuries of production of indiennes and printed fabrics. The festival is part of this dynamic of cultural reconversion, transforming a heritage site into a vibrant place of contemporary creation.

A rich program throughout the season

Beyond the ephemeral gardens, the festival punctuates the season with festive and cultural events: Musik au Parc in June, Industrial Heritage Festival, 19^th Century Festival, Nocturnal Enchantments in the illuminated gardens in July-August, European Heritage Days in September, and Autumn Festival in October for the closing. These events allow visitors to experience the park from different angles, by day and by night, in an atmosphere that is sometimes contemplative, sometimes festive.

A family-friendly and accessible event

The Festival des Jardins Métissés is designed for all audiences. The routes are accessible to families with strollers, and many activities are designed for children: nature games, creative workshops, treasure hunts, and a barefoot path. The park also has picnic areas and a catering space, inviting visitors to extend their visit for an entire day in the green.