Festival crowds undeterred by wet weather

Rain failed to deter festival-goers from flocking to the Gurten in Berne Keystone

Around 200,000 people attended open-air festivals throughout Switzerland at the weekend despite heavy rain and chilly temperatures.

Some 44,000 tickets were sold for the three-day rock festival on the hill overlooking Berne, the Gurten, to the delight of organisers who had feared a financial deficit as a result of the weather.

It was the same story in the streets of Lausanne, where the annual “Festival de la Cité” attracted over 80,000 on Saturday night for the climax of an event which featured some 700 entertainers during the course of a week.

Over 70,000 were at the “Estival Jazz” festival in Lugano, while in Fribourg the organisers of the city’s sacred music festival said they were delighted with the public response to a series of concerts.

One of the most colourful events of the weekend was a reconstruction of the passage of Napoleonic troops through Canton Valais. The 450 participants, in period costume and some on horse-back, were cheered by about 4,000 people lining the streets of the small town of Martigny.

swissinfo with agencies