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Seven great summer music festivals in Switzerland

Switzerland is host to a multitude of music festivals in summer: here are some of the very best.

Published: 21 June 2018 16:29 CEST
Seven great summer music festivals in Switzerland
The Frauenfeld Openair festival in July will feature Eminem. Photo: Swiss Tourism

Montreux Jazz Festival

June 29th to July 14th

No list of Swiss music festivals would be complete without a mention of this iconic event. This year, Australian composer and singer Nick Cave will be one of the top attractions, while other big names include Iggy Pop and Brazilian singer Seu Jorge, who will be singing the songs of David Bowie. There is also plenty of free music on offer in the streets of the lakeside town during the festival for those terrified by the high ticket prices.

National Yodelling Festival, Basel

June 26th to June 28th

What better way to enjoy some extreme tourism than visiting a Swiss yodelling festival? This huge event which attracts upwards of 150,000 visitors is held in a different location every year. It includes not just yodelling but also activities such as flag twirling, which is one of oldest sports in Switzerland and alphorn playing. Oh, and there are plenty of traditional Swiss costumes, of course.

Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Gstaad

July 13th to September 1st

The Gstaad Menuhin Festival features some of the world’s finest classic musical performers on over 60 stages. This year, the event is dedicated to the idea of ‘The Alps’, and includes, for example, a performance of compositions composed by while on holiday on the shores of Lake Thun.

Photo: Raphael Faux

Irish Openair Toggenburg, Rietbad, St Gallen

September 7th to September 8th

The tenth edition of this festival in the beautiful Toggenburg region features a range of great Irish music from traditional to more punk-inspired bands with a really party atmosphere.

Paléo Festival Nyon

July 17th to July 22nd

The massively popular Paléo Festival on the shores of Lake Geneva will this year feature acts including Depeche Mode, The Killers, Gorillaz and Lenny Kravitz. It’s not just about music though. Kids up to the age of 12 get in free and there are all sorts of activities on offer for them. There is also street theatre for young and old alike and a strong focus on supporting charitable causes. A Swiss must.

Openair Frauenfeld 2018

July 5th to July 7th

Eminem is performing at the 2018 Frauenfeld Openair. Photo: Getty Images North America/AFP

Describing itself as the biggest hip hop festival in Europe, the 2018 edition of this event can boast names including rap legend Eminem along with N.E.R:D and Wiz Khalifa. Unfortunately, all three days of the festival are sold out, so you will need to be resourceful to get tickets.

Open Air Lumnezia, Graubünden

July 19th to July 21st

This festival may be small on big names but is famous for its spectacular setting and wonderful atmosphere. Tickets for this year’s event have already sold out but if you do manage to get your hands on some, this is well worth the trip. Children born in or after 2005 get in for free.

 

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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