Luzern’s nightlife scene is active, with plenty of arts centres and music venues around the Old Town and the rest of the city. There are two places to check flyers: Doo-Bop, Brandgässli 8, is a dance music shop with plenty of information about events in Luzern; while Romp, Denkmalstrasse 17, is an “info-shop” at the centre of Luzern’s squat culture, with music, flyers and contacts for all kinds of alternative activities around and about. The Stattkino, Baselstrasse 15, is an arthouse cinema with a varied daily programme of world cinema, plenty of it in English.

Look out for the monthly Kultur Kalender (Fr.4, if it’s not free), available at the tourist office and cafés around town, with complete city listings. The Luzerner Bar Guide (www.barfuehrer.ch) is a free pocket appraisal of dozens of establishments.

Bars, clubs and live music

Boa, Geissensteinring 41. Arts centre with a range of interesting events and music nights.

Jazz Kantine, Grabenstrasse 8. Happening Old Town café-bar beside Luzern’s jazz school, with DJs and live music (not only jazz) in the basement on weekends.

Rathaus Brauerei, Unter der Egg. Wonderful echoing cross-vaulted beerhall below the Rathaus, where young enthusiastic drinkers come to sample a range of self-brewed beers, all of which are pretty powerful.

Schüür, Tribschenstrasse 1. Daytime bar with cheap weekday lunches which after dark becomes a frenetic venue for excellent live music (Fri & Sat until 4am). Famous after-hours parties begin at 5am Sunday morning.

Sedel, near the HI hostel. A former women’s prison outside the city, which now hosts noisy punkish/industrial bands and DJ nights at the weekend, with a kind of community-squat atmosphere during the week as bands practise in the graffitied cells.

St Magdalena, Eisengasse 5. Universally known as the Magdi-Bar, with a crowded ground-floor bar and a more sociable upstairs, although everything gets more and more raucous as the night veers wildly on.

Wärchhof, Werkhofstrasse 11 (www.waerchhof.ch). Tiny little co-op-run dive in an industrial area south of the station, with loud bands, DJs and alternative-style happenings. Open nightly until midnight only; Monday is women-only night.