The story
Gauder Fest in Zell am Ziller
A centuries-old Zillertal valley festival built around the ceremonial tapping of the Gauderbock, Austria's strongest festival beer, and the Ranggeln, a traditional Alpine wrestling contest between competitors historically drawn from the Pinzgau and Zillertal regions, held each spring in Zell am Ziller's village square, with both customs recognized in Austria's inventory of intangible cultural heritage.
The strongest beer brewed each year in Austria, the Gauderbock, is tapped ceremonially to open a festival whose roots reach back roughly half a millennium to the Zillertal valley's Gauderlehen brewery lands, from which the festival takes its name — not, as often assumed, from the Austrian dialect word "Gaudi," meaning cheerfulness.