Street Parade revellers keep quiet for baby birds

Elisabeth Kehl, director of Zurich city aviary, feared that the loud noise from the Street Parade – Europe’s largest techno music festival – would disturb the hatching of crowned hornbill chicks happening on the same day, reports news agency ATS.

Street Parade organizers came to the rescue by plastering posters around the 2.4-kilometre (1.5-mile) parade route showing the exact location of the aviary on Mythenquai and asking revellers to turn off loudspeakers when passing by.

And to Kehl’s surprise, festivalgoers complied with the request, even singing "happy birthday" as they passed the aviary.

Writing on the aviary's Facebook page Kehl said: "The commitment and consideration of the organizers of the Street Parade was terrific and shows that together, anything is possible. All the birds are doing fine and the female hornbill has not been fazed. Wonderful! Thank you!"

Impressed with the respectful behaviour of Street Parade’s 950,000 revellers, Kehl told ATS she would name one of the baby hornbills "Stripi" in their honour.

However it will be several days before the aviary knows if the hatching has been a success, she added.

Zurich Aviary houses many species of rare bird and also takes in wild birds that have been injured, are ill or have fallen from nests.

One of Switzerland’s biggest festivals, Street Parade annually attracts hundreds of thousands of techno fans to the streets of Zurich to watch 30 “lovemobiles” parade around the town pumping dance music.

The event – which promotes peaceful partying and has an anti-drug policy – took place this year with fewer injuries than usual, said ATS.

Some 677 festivalgoers were treated at medical posts along the route, 25 percent fewer than the previous year.

Cantonal police arrested 25 people during the day, six of them Swiss.

However police said they were surprised by the wide range of drugs seized during the day, including cocaine, ecstasy and an assortment of unidentified pills and powders.

During the early hours of Sunday morning traffic police monitoring roads out of Zurich found 11 drivers under the influence of drugs and two over the alcohol limit.