The Switzerland Traveler

Fancy a big night out in Zürich?
Then you should know about something called a VIP Clubbing Pass, which gets you access to ten clubs across the city.
Gay clubs, straight clubs, classic clubs, they all seem to be covered. Most of them seem to be down the fashionable (and industrial) Züri-West area, so you should be able to get round a few of them, should the inclination grab you.
The pass is included in some special hotel packages, and costs CHF 104.
http://www.zuerich.com/en/page.cfm/clubbing
Pgoto: Flickr yago1

4 Comments

I do not buy CDs at concerts. In fact I don’t even buy CDs.
That all changed last Monday. Little Fish, a two-piece band from Oxford played at The Abart.
There are now two CDs in my flat and I bought them both on Monday night. One studio demo (“it’s rare mate”) and another with three tracks live. I didn’t care that the tracks were probably the same. If there was a possibility of a note, even a breath, being different, I wanted it. I needed it. I even checked iTunes when I got home to see if more is available; it’s not. …read more

1 Comment

The abart music club is one of Zurich’s finest music institutions.
It doesn’t look much, and to be fair, I’ve described it in the past as sleazy, but in reality it’s not at all.
It works both as a club and as a concert venue; holding around 600 people.
My favourite feature is the stage, tucked into a corner with a stage door that leads out into the car park. Which means when the band goes off, you get a refresshing blast of fresh air.
Music style tends to be UK/US Indie, plus there’s always a fair variety of Pulp Fiction parties, or Masters …read more

1 Comment

You wouldn’t think that a small village about 20km further down the lake would feel the need to compete with Montreux.
But Cully Jazz Festival seems to do that, although not at the same time of year.
For nine days from Friday April 4, there are daily concerts, either in the afternoon or early evening.
Seeing as I haven’t heard of any of the acts, it’s probably worth looking at cullyjazz.ch to get an idea of who’s playing.
The festival is non-profit making and has been enjoying success for 25 years now, so if you like Jazz, you can be sure of a …read more

Comments Off

Montreux is renowned internationally for its Jazz Festival.
Less well-known is the Choral Festival which takes place at the Stravinsky Auditorium next week.
Frankly, I know little about it, but thought if this is the sort of thing you like, you might wish to know about it.
About 20 Choral groups from around Europe will be playing. The event runs from Tuesday, 25 March until Saturday, 29 March.
See www.choralfestival.ch for more details.
Photo: Flickr – oxmox

Comments Off

The magnificent concert house in Luzern (Lucerne) plays host to a classical mustifal festival next week. Starting on Saturday 8th March, continuing through to Sunday 16th.
As it’s a pre-Easter festival, there is a religous aspect to some of the music, Bach’s Passion of St John, and Michael Tippet’s A Child of our Time. 

There’s also the start of a series of a Beethoven cycle containing all the nine symphonies, the overtures, and the solo concertos, performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink.
This series will conclude at next year’s festival.
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons will …read more

Comments Off

Blimey, they’re still going on.
Only two weeks to Easter and the beginning of the 40 days beforehand is still being celebrated.
Mind you, seeing as you’re supposed to give up stuff in those 40 days I can’t help but admire the logic of having the party late.
Anyway, Avenches, 12km NW of Fribourg is up for a party this weekend, and as you’d expect, they’ll be holding it in the Roman Amphitheatre.
Let’s face it, when your town used to be the most important in Switzerland, in thise 4th Century days when it was known as Aventicum, you’d want to brag a bit. …read more

Comments Off

Schiffbau means (literally) Ship building. So it’s a strange building to find in the middle of a city.
But no, they really used to build the boats that sail on lake Zürich down near Escher-Wyss Platz. The boats are fairly large too, with capacities of around 750 passengers.
But now the industrial area is steadily being converted into a trendy area with restaurants, clubs, cinemas and bars.
Schiffbau itself has two bars, a restaurant (LaSalle) and a Jazz Club (Moods) all of which I’ll be examining in detail in later posts.
The first port of call should be the bar at the top of …read more

Comments Off

Staying on this week’s theme of music, there’s a major Blues festival held annually in Luzern.
It runs from the 2nd to 11th November and is based around the Grand Casino
It features a number of international acts; the idea being to allow residents of Switzerland (and passing visitors) to experience what the organizers refer to as "the true blues"
Whether that means you’ll come away knowing exactly how the performers woke up this morning I don’t know, but if you like your music heavy on guitar, then this could be the place for you.
As I’m not a …read more

Comments Off

Next weekend sees another big party come to Zürich. Freestyle.ch is Europe’s biggest freestyle sports event. Covering snowboard, free-style skiing, skateboards and FMX (I assume that’s something to do with little bikes) the top stars from each sport will be competing for the top USD 100,000 prize.The action all takes place at Landiwiese, on the south side of the lake. I caught part of the action last year, by accident(!) and everything takes place in a relaxed party atmosphere, especially if the weather is behaving itself. Currently the forecast doesn’t look too bad, although we aren’t expecting blazing sunshine.Nightime sees …read more

1 Comment