A summer evening, a historic chapel, and a guitar that’s instantly recognizable after just a few bars: Carlos Santana will kick off the St. Peter at Sunset festival in Kestenholz on July 8, 2027. The Swiss stop on his “Planet of Free Will Global Tour 2027” fits perfectly with the festival’s intimate setting.
There are concert venues where the surroundings become part of the evening. St. Peter at Sunset is one of them: In front of St. Peter’s Chapel in Kestenholz, international stars perform in a relatively intimate festival setting.
In 2027, Carlos Santana will open the festival. On Thursday, July 8, the doors open at 5 p.m. A supporting act—yet to be announced—is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and Santana takes the stage at 9 p.m.
The setting is sure to add to the appeal, especially with his music. Santana’s long guitar lines, Latin rhythms, and blues influences aren’t just for large arenas. In Kestenholz, they’ll find a venue where the stage and the audience come closer together.
The performance at St. Peter at Sunset is part of the “Planet of Free Will Global Tour 2027.” The European leg of the tour kicks off on June 30 in London. After Paris, the tour heads to Kestenholz on July 8, before continuing on to Germany, Italy, and Austria, among other destinations.
The setlist spans more than five decades of Santana’s career. The tour announcement specifically mentions two seminal albums: 1970’s “Abraxas” and 1999’s “Supernatural.”
For those who associate Santana primarily with songs from these two phases of his career, this offers a good reason to see him again. At the same time, the musician continues to release new material.
In 2026, Santana released “Hermano” with Natalia Lafourcade. In it, Son Jarocho from Veracruz meets his electric guitar. The song was created with Edgar Barrera and continues a series of new collaborations.
This means Carlos Santana isn’t coming to Kestenholz just for a retrospective. Between well-known albums and new recordings, this current phase of his career shows how consistently he blends his musical roots with other generations and genres.
And that’s exactly what makes the opening of St. Peter at Sunset so intriguing: an open-air summer concert, an extraordinary setting, and a musician whose guitar sound has been instantly recognizable for decades.