Paléo reveals its birthday surprise

25th anniversary poster for Paléo Keystone

The organisers of Switzerland's biggest open-air music festival - the Paléo at Nyon - have ended the suspense over who will perform on Tuesday at the opening night on its 25th anniversary.

They had said that 25 surprise guests, who had performed at previous festivals, were invited. But now that number has risen to 33 and includes such stars as Louise Attaque, Michael von der Heide, Stéphane Blok, Renaud, Noa and Sapho.

All 36,000 tickets were sold days before the concert, and organisers are expecting strong demand for the rest of the festival, which will also feature among others the Buena Vista Social Club, Oasis and the Cranberries.

Since the first festival, attended by some 8,000 people, the Paléo has grown into a major event on the European rock music calendar, with ticket sales this year already totalling nearly 200,000.

This will be the last Paléo for founder and director, Daniel Rossellat, who is leaving to join the team of Expo 02, Switzerland’s national exhibition in 2002. While delighted with ticket sales, Rossellat says he is sorry that thousands of would-be spectators will be disappointed because concerts are fully booked.

This prompted one Swiss performer, Stephan Eicher, to comment that the Paléo was the only festival he knew of which complained about being sold-out.

swissinfo with agencies