The Swiss voice in the world since 1935

Basel attempts world‘s largest over-60s disco before Eurovision Song Contest

Record attempt as the world's largest over-60s disco before the ESC in Basel
Record attempt as the world's largest over-60s disco before the ESC in Basel Keystone-SDA

It was billed as a world record attempt for the biggest over-60s disco of all time. However, the numerous visitors on Saturday afternoon in Basel were primarily interested in having fun dancing, as an on-site inspection showed.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Pro Senectute spokesperson Peter Burri Follath described the world record attempt as merely a side effect. According to the motto “United by Music”, the aim of the event in the run-up to the Eurovision Song Contest was to meet the needs of older people too. This includes encouraging them to do something for their health by dancing and socialising. The organisers kept the admission price low (CHF9 =$10.90).

+ How Switzerland became a longevity hot spot

The demand is obviously there. Over 1,400 tickets were sold in a very short space of time, it was reported. A long queue had formed in front of the entrance to Hall 2 of Messe Basel long before the announced start of the disco at 2 pm, so the organisers opened the doors earlier than planned.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey below to help us understand your needs.

External Content

Popular Stories

News

Swiss economy barely grows in the second quarter

More

Swiss economy stagnates in second quarter

This content was published on After a strong start to the year, the Swiss economy has slowed considerably. In the second quarter, gross domestic product (GDP) rose by just 0.1 per cent on an adjusted basis compared to the previous quarter.

Read more: Swiss economy stagnates in second quarter
One-and-a-half-year conditional prison sentence for priest in Ticino

More

Swiss priest found guilty of child sex abuse

This content was published on The Ticino cantonal criminal court in Lugano has found a priest guilty of multiple sexual assault and sexual offences with minors. The man was sentenced to a conditional 18-month prison term.

Read more: Swiss priest found guilty of child sex abuse
A code of conduct for collecting signatures

More

Swiss democracy

Switzerland to introduce code of conduct for collecting referendum signatures

This content was published on Commercial collectors of signatures for initiatives and referendums could be given a legally non-binding code of conduct. This proposal comes from the Federal Chancellery following the discovery of thousands of falsified signatures.

Read more: Switzerland to introduce code of conduct for collecting referendum signatures

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR