In June art festivals of all sorts blossom like spring flowers across Switzerland in almost every one of the 26 Cantons, from Art Basel in the north, a gigantic week-long art market that attracts 50,000 collectors and buyers, to the Montreux Jazz Festival in the south, one of the world’s greatest music venues.

But they all pale in comparison to the favorite festival of the Swiss …Yodelfest, It’s the World Cup of yodeling and it’s a hoot! Held every three years, it actually draws more attendees than any other festival. In 2008 it will be in Lucerne over the last week of June. Ten thousand yodelers and 500 alphorn enthusiasts from all over the world will converge on the city and over 200,000 will attend the festival. The President of Switzerland will lead a parade of Cantons and nations through the streets of Lucerne, all marching in their native costumes and entertaining the crowds with melodious group yodeling. Teams from as far away as America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia will compete.

Throughout the town the streets will “be alive with the sound of music” with impromptu singing and the playing of 10-foot alphorns. Joyous choruses of modulating tones will swell as enthusiasts toot and yodel their hearts away while ingesting huge quantities of roasted sausages and cold Swiss beer. What a festival, and it’s free!

Yodeling and alphorn playing were originally a means of communication across the Alps. They still have a big voice in everyday Swiss entertainment, but It is seldom done by individuals, as in western yodeling, it is generally choral singing intertwining base to soprano voices of men and women.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Switzerland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.