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CULTURE

10 unmissable events in Switzerland this October

From celebrity spotting at Zurich’s film festival to cheese tasting and embracing Irish culture in Fribourg, here are the top events you shouldn’t miss out on this October in Switzerland.

Published: 25 September 2023 15:32 CEST
10 unmissable events in Switzerland this October
The Irish Festival in the beautiful Swiss town of Fribourg is one even not to miss in Switzerland this October. Photo by Patrick Robert Doyle on Unsplash

Zurich Film Festival

Every autumn, the Zurich Film Festival attracts thousands of movie enthusiasts, film stars and media professionals – and this year, you can be one of them. The event is held from September 28th until October 8th and tickets can be purchased in person at Paradeplatz from 12pm to 7pm (except Sundays). Ticket prices start from 26.20 Swiss francs apiece.

Festa d’Autunno

Whether you are a Ticino resident or have always wanted to learn more about the region, we recommend heading to this year’s Festa d’Autunno (autumn festival) in Ticino’s largest city, Lugano.

The festival, which runs from September 29th until October 1st, invites visitors to discover Ticino’s gastronomy, taste exceptional wines and explore Lugano’s shopping district while being serenaded by folklore music. Additionally, Lugano Region will also offer free guided tours for those interested in discovering the history of its city centre.

Herbstmesse (Lozärner Määs)

While on the topic of autumn fairs, Lucerne’s traditional autumn festival is a must-visit if you’re in the area between September 30th and October 15th. The fair will span from the Bahnhofplatz via Europaplatz to Inseli in Lucerne’s city centre and feature over 100 market stalls selling anything from baked goods to clothing items and hand-crafted gifts.

Balade dans Genève en Tram Historique

Ever wondered what it would be like to explore Geneva from the inside of a tram dating back to the 1920s? Well, now’s your chance. On October 1st, visitors will be able to take part in hourly trips across Geneva on one of the city’s historical trams, which will depart from Lancy Gare and head to Cornavin via Carouge, Plainpalais, Bel Air and Place de Neuve.

Irish Festival, Fribourg

“Ireland is coming to Fribourg,” says the website for the town’s inaugral Irish Festival.

“With sixteen cultural events in seven locations over three days, the inaugural Irish Festival Fribourg/Freiburg has something to offer all ages and interests,” it adds.

The event aims to connect Irish and Swiss culture and offers a range of activities to entertain young and old. From October 6th to 8th, visitors can enjoy whiskey tasting, Irish music, watch a documentary about a Belfast primary school and even join in literary discussions at various locations in Fribourg.

Festival director Clare O’Dea says “The programme offers a weekend of discovery and fun to the people of Fribourg and visitors from near and far.”

Zurich Wine Festival

At the Zurich Wine Festival you can enjoy over 350 wines from around the globe and take part in over 15 master classes on the art of winemaking. The festival will be held at the Papiersaal Sihlcity between October 16th and October 22nd.

Tickets to the wine exhibition cost 25 Swiss francs apiece (and allow you to taste as many wines as you wish), while a master class ticket for your chosen session will set you back 49 Swiss francs.

Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival (LUFF)

The Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, which takes place from October 18th to 22nd, promotes innovative films and musical acts that do not benefit from a wide distribution via traditional channels and is one of Lausanne’s most eccentric events.

Käsefest Bern

Cheesemakers from all over the region of Bern will come together for the Käsefest Bern on October 21st to showcase their cheesy treasures at the city’s Waisenhausplatz. In addition to the cheese market, the event will offer musical entertainment, a cheese chalet, food bars and even cow milking.

Basler Herbstmesse

Switzerland’s oldest and largest amusement fair – the Basler Herbstmesse – takes place from October 28th until November 14th. The Basler Herbstmesse is an integral part of the city’s cultural heritage and draws around one million visitors from Switzerland and overseas each year.

Visitors can enjoy a leisurly stroll from Barfüsserplatz to Messeplatz and from Petersplatz to the city’s cathedral while taking in traditional market stalls, exciting rides and many other nostalgic attractions.

Lausanne Marathon

If you’re looking to keep fit while taking in magnificent scenery, then you may want to join 13,600 joggers in the Lausanne Marathon on Sunday, October 29th at 10am. The 30th Lausanne Marathon will see runners jog between Lausanne and La Tour-de-Peilz, passing along the shores of Lake Geneva and through the UNESCO-listed Lavaux vineyards.

The best part? You can choose which type of marathon you’d like to run, be it a full marathon, semi-marathon, 10 kilometres or Nordic walking.

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SWISS HISTORY

Switzerland’s little known colonial past revealed in Zurich exhibition

A new exhibition at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich is shedding light on a chapter in the Alpine nation's history, in a bid to understand how Switzerland benefited from the colonial era.

Published: 16 September 2024 10:05 CEST
Switzerland's little known colonial past revealed in Zurich exhibition
Switzerland was never a colonial power, yet through its traders, mercenaries, anthropologists and missionaries, it contributed to colonial expansion, sparking debates about how to confront this lesser-known aspect of the country’s past.
“Swiss citizens and companies were heavily involved in the colonial system from the 16th century onwards,” the exhibition explains.

Entitled “Colonial: Switzerland’s Global Entanglements”, the exhibition presents objects and artefacts that bear witness to the landlocked country’s participation alongside the seafaring major European colonial powers.

It includes 18th-century cotton cloth used by Swiss traders as currency to buy enslaved people, sacks for loading goods such as cotton and cocoa onto ships, and a uniform jacket from a Swiss mercenary regiment which served the Dutch East India Company before switching to the British crown.

The regiment fought with the British alongside the future Duke of Wellington in the 1799 Siege of Seringapatam in India that overthrew Tipu Sultan of Mysore.

The exhibition also includes a collection of butterflies assembled by a wealthy merchant involved in a coffee plantation in Cuba cultivated by slaves, and the cap and whip of a Swiss national recruited as a civil servant in the Congo Free State in the early 20th century.

Understanding the debate

“It’s a difficult subject,” the Swiss National Museum’s director Denise Tonella told AFP.

“It’s not easy to tackle an unflattering topic,” but “it’s an important issue for today’s society,” she added.

“Since the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been a lot of debate about colonialism and Switzerland,” Tonella said, with the exhibition aimed at providing the means to understand the issues.

In the wake of protests in the United States in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, and the tearing down of a statue of a slave trader in the British city of Bristol, the Swiss city of Neuchatel was shaken by a controversy surrounding its statue of David de Pury, an 18th-century banker and merchant.

A major benefactor of his hometown in northwestern Switzerland, his statue was sprayed with red paint in 2020 and a group questioning his connections to the slave trade launched a petition to have it removed.

A compromise was reached, with the local authorities opting for an explanatory plaque and the installation alongside it of a critical artwork representing the statue upside down, with its head buried in the base.

Theories justifying colonialism

“Different periods elicit different perspectives on history,” professor Georg Kreis wrote in the exhibition catalogue, explaining that these issues had long “been repressed” at the academic level.

Since it had no colonies, Switzerland perceived itself “outside the wider European history, occupying a special status” as an “innocent country”, the historian recalled.

“After the turn of the millennium, however, Switzerland’s focus on its colonial past took a different turn,” with academic study increasing over the past 20 years.

Drawing on this research, the museum set out to reflect on all facets of Swiss involvement, starting with the trade in raw materials and the transatlantic slave trade that saw merchants and plantation owners rack up immense fortunes in the 18th century.

The exhibition also shows how Swiss mercenaries were recruited to suppress uprisings in colonial possessions, and later how geologists took part in oil exploration.

It also sheds light on the Swiss naturalists and anthropologists behind racial theories used to justify colonialism.

The exhibition recalls how in the early 20th century, the universities of Geneva and Zurich were renowned for their work in racial anthropology, where researchers measured skulls to hierarchise populations.

The exhibition, which opened on Friday, runs until January 9th

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