Swiss Federal Music Festival has begun
Despite the feared rain, the parade of the Federal Music Festival in Biel/Bienne got underway on Thursday. The music competition will continue on Friday.
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The first parade formations marched through the city at around 12:30pm. The organisers had only decided to hold the parade about an hour earlier. Although it drizzled from time to time, the sun also made an appearance in Biel/Bienne during the afternoon.
“If it only drizzles a little, that’s fine. But if it rains heavily, the parade will be cancelled,” the festival’s communications manager, Théo Martin, told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA in the morning. Wind instruments such as clarinets, saxophones and oboes in particular would not cope well with the wet.
Jean-Marc Richard, a member of the organising committee, told Swiss public television RTS that the event allowed “the power and energy of wind instruments to be shown”. Sometimes a negative image of this folk music dominates, he said.
+ The myth of Swiss folk music
Some 532 music societies from all over Switzerland with a total of 25,063 participants will be competing against each other in various categories from Thursday to Sunday. The event usually takes place every five years and attracts many spectators.
The 35th Swiss Federal Music Festival was originally due to take place in Interlaken in 2021, but fell victim to the Covid pandemic. Interlaken threw in the towel for the 2026 edition for financial reasons. Biel/Bienne then stepped into the breach.
Adapted from German by AI/ts
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