I had plans for Saturday June 28, 2008. I was going canoing with friends on lake Zurich. It was going to be fantastic. Then on Friday, I found out about the Swiss yodeling festival, Eidgenössischen Jodlerfest (English flyer).
This festival only happens once every three years and features yodeling, alp horn blowing, and flag throwing. Both concerts and competitions are part of the festivities. What could be more Swiss than this? So my plans changed. That night I asked around and found about 8 people interested in going. The festival is in a different city each time, and this year it was in Lucerne, about an hour south of Zurich. We agreed to meet at the train station at 1:30pm for a 2pm train.
The next morning I got emails and phone calls from various people canceling and such, but there were still people coming. I headed down to the train station and ran across a huge soccer display.
It's several huge soccer players in a circle, and most people didn't even come up to their calves. It was an amazing and insane display and should give you an idea of just how seriously they take soccer here (Eurocup 2008 was still going on).
Anyway, two people showed up and everyone else canceled or were "maybe but don't wait on me," so we got on our 2pm train and headed out.
We arrived in Lucerne and walked across the street from the train station to the information booth. The guy said something in German, and I said (in German) that I don't speak much German. He said "English?" and I said "yes" and he said "you're from California?"
What the fuck?! If I was wearing a surfing shirt or something, I could have maybe understood, but I was wearing denim shorts and a plain black t-shirt! How the hell? Anyway, he explained that the locations marked on the map were designated performance areas, but that there would also be lots of people just setting up in the streets and performing as well. We got our tickets, and immediately stumbled upon some horn blowers, which we stopped to listen to.
We headed across the bridge to the other side of the lake and wondered around enjoying the beauty of Lucerne. Here's some pictures - note the obscenely huge swan.
We found the first performance site: a small church. We joined the mob waiting to get in. When whoever was singing finished, they opened the doors, a small number of people (or, more specifically, a small percentage of people that were in the church) exited, making room for a few more people. We squished into the back in standing room. They closed the door and a girl came out and sang a beautiful song. It was far less 'yodely' than you would think. There were a few rapid-switch-between-head-and-chest-voice parts, but they were subtle, fit well, and did not comprise the majority of the song. She had an absolutely beautiful voice and the song was quite lively. After she finished her song and departed the stage, they re-opened the doors. It was way too cramped, so we left (well, Andrew and I left; Travis stayed for one more, but we didn't know that since we had been split up).
Since we didn't see Travis I texted him to let him know we were going to catch a performance at a nearby location and meet up with him afterwards and headed to the hotel next door.
We were still in line when he got out, so he came and found us. We got into a beautiful auditorium and found a place to stand to the left of the seating and near the front. A large group came out and sang another very cool song. I felt quite nostalgic for my old choir days. It was nice to be enjoying some singing. After that performance quite a few people cleared out and we found chairs and stayed for 3 more performances.
Like the others we'd seen, these performances were great. Snapping photos in this lighting was very difficult. The last photo in this group is from Travis, who is a much better photographer than I am.
I took a few quick video snippets of two of the performances Here's a video of the large group and one of the trio. The later has more of the yodel aspect to it present int he video.
After 4 performances, we decided to head off to the flag throwing competition way on the other side of the festival. This was very interesting to see. Guys come out, have to stand in a very small circle and do a routine with a flag. They throw the flag up in the air, wave it around, etc., and they get scored on it. They do some amazing things with those flags while the judges write down stuff. There are definitely some rules, but it's not clear what they all are. They definitely can't step outside of the circle. If they make it to the end, they usually let out a very odd screetch. Sometimes a judge will say something which apparently amounts to "you're done, leave" and they walk away dejected. The last three pictures below are courtesy of Travis.
After that we stopped for some icecream to hold us over for dinner on our way to some horn blowing. I don't remember what the flavor I had was called but it was by far the best ice cream I've ever had in my life. It was by cote d'or, and was fantastic. In fact I think it was the most amazing desert I've ever had, ever. Anyway, it was then off to horn blowing. There was a backyard area where the horn blowing was. We got there during a break, apparently, and found a seat. We saw at least 5 performances including 2 groups, a single, and a trio. They were really cool. The songs were all very somber - I think that's the type of music that suits these instruments best.
By now we were very hungry, so we headed off. But I was very curious how heavy those horns were. So while walking, I passed a horn player and asked if I could hold his horn (heh), and he said yes. It's about as heavy as a t-shirt! They are unbelievably light!
We stopped in a large tent and managed to find 3 seats after some looking, waiting, and finagling. But after looking at the menu which was about 5 things all of which weren't particularly inspiring for any of us and seeing how hard it was going to be to get service, we decided that street vendors were probably a better bet. So we headed outside and got ourselves some bratwurst. We stopped for some more pictures of the lake and then headed across Chapel Bridge, a pedestrian bridge which Lucerne is famous for. It is the oldest wooden bridge in Europe, built in 1333. On that bridge we passed a train of men with large bells which they would hit with their legs as they walked making a fantastic cacophony of noise!
The view of the mountains from the bridge was amazing.
At this point, Travis headed back to Zurich. Andrew and I stayed for the evening concert and fireworks. However, there wasn't anything scheduled between 8pm and 10:30pm and it was just after 8pm. Andrew and I went looking for a pub to have a drink in, but failed miserably. We did see this cool piece of art on our search though.
Also on our journey, we passed some bagpipe players, which I was really excited about! They were very good.
You can also see a quick video.
We passed a make-shift restaurant built in the middle of the street which had rows and rows of swiss people eating mostly sausage... I snapped this photo, but I'm not sure it captures what a neat scene it was.
Lacking a pub, we went to a beer booth, Andrew got a beer and I got a soda. We sat and chatted for an hour or so and then decided we needed more of that fantastic icecream we had before dinner. From there we fought our way across the bridge and through the crowded streets to find a seat for the evening show. We passed a horn player on the bridge and as I stood directly in front of his horn it was cool to feel the ground vibrating from an instrument that isn't all that loud. We got to the seats and found a pair at about 9:30pm for the 10:30pm show (we got some of the last seats).
At this point the bridge and the entirety of the main street were just a packed sea of people. Just an endless sea of people.
Some horn players played for about 10 minutes in the street near where we sat before the show started. They were quite good. The picture below shows the crowd and the musicians.
The show was fireworks with singing played over loud speakers. I don't know if it was real people singing live somewhere or a recording, but it was barely audible, and was clearly being played all around the lake. The seats were wholly unneeded. But the fireworks over the lake were really impressive. I've seen a lot of fireworks displays. Many of them had more large and insane fireworks, but I don't think I've ever seen any as elegant as this one. The fireworks really had a dance to them and went with the music. They were a whole musical number in themselves, in fact. It was quite impressive.
Or see them in video form.
Lots of people thought I was insane for wanting to go to this. However, it proved to be an amazing experience - one that is only even possible once every three years. After all, what's the point of moving to another country if you can't enjoy the local culture? I would recommend this to anyone. Admittedly, it's a 4 day festival, and a one-day ticket is probably sufficient for most people. But it's definitely worth checking out. I had a lot of fun!