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Musical oasis woos rock fans

The Gurten Festival takes place on a hill overlooking Bern (picture: Gurten Festival) The Gurten Festival takes place on a hill overlooking Bern (picture: Gurten Festival)

One of Switzerland's biggest music festivals is underway this weekend, headlined by British rockers, Oasis.

This summer’s Gurten Festival promises to offer a more eclectic mix of sounds than ever to the 15,000 fans expected to make their way up the eponymous mountain on the outskirts of Bern.

“Foreign bands who come here for the first time can never get their head around the fact that the festival is held at the top of a mountain and that you have to take a train or walk up to get to it,” says Vernon Snoxall, responsible for looking after the bands during the festival.

“But in the end, they’re always full of praise for the Gurten’s unique location and – most of all – for the audience.”

Aside from Oasis, other top drawer acts include the Italian pop star, Jovanotti and German rock veterans “Die Toten Hosen”. One of the hottest bands from the Swiss music scene, Züri West, promises to gets fans singing along until the early hours. They’ll be preceded by Swiss-based acid-jazz ensemble, Funky Brotherhood.

Pop to garage

The range of acts at this year’s festival covers every musical style, from pop to garage, rock to house, blues and funk, with a long line up of international acts such as pop-bossa nova queen, Bebel Gilberto, from Brazil, and Mexican artists, Los de Abajo.

“We try to have every kind of style and we want people to feel that they can discover new bands they don’t know,” festival organiser, Philippe Cornu, told swissinfo.

“So I’m really excited about some of this year’s foreign bands, such as Jarabe de Palo, who are huge in Spain and unknown over here. I think they’ll be a huge success.”

Cornu, dubbed the “Gurten King”, has been involved in the festival since 1991, the year it evolved from catering solely for rock and folk fans to embracing a more diverse mix of pop music.

Braving the weather

“Things have changed a lot over the years and so has the audience – they’re now quite likely to camp out at the Gurten for the whole three days, whatever the weather, and we need provide them with a broad, top quality line up throughout the day,” Cornu said.

“Before, people would come just to see Bob Dylan playing and then they’d disappear – especially if it was raining.”

Oasis’ attendance has been viewed by many as a personal coup for Cornu, an accolade which is brushed off by the organiser.

“It was actually the band’s agent who contacted me, after a planned tour with U2 fell through – and they also have a new album to promote.”

Booed off stage

The band – as famous for the antics of front men, Noel and Liam Gallagher, as for their best-selling albums – last appeared in Switzerland two years ago at the Paléo Festival in Nyon, when they were unceremoniously booed offstage after insulting the largely Swiss audience.

However, Cornu said he was confident this year would not see a repeat performance of that incident.

“I can understand why Oasis walked off the set because people were throwing beer cans at them. But I’d expect our audience to be more tolerant and we have security people to boot out any troublemakers,” he says.

“Our message is: if you don’t like the show, go and have a pizza and come back later – but don’t cause trouble.”

That warning has evidently been heeded by previous audiences, who usually give performing bands a euphoric welcome.

“It’s such a great place to perform,” says the lead singer of Funky Brotherhood, Rick Washington. “Last year, it was pouring with rain and yet everyone still danced and sang along, despite being soaked through.”

by Vanessa Mock

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