Saturday, August 12, 2006

Buskers Bern



Buskers Bern is a three-day long street music festival in Berne. The "buskers" are from round the globe and are mostly excellent.

Here's a snapshot of a Brazilian trio that reminded me of Manu Chao.

Last night was spoiled by rain but tonight looks ok. www.buskersbern.ch

Monday, August 07, 2006

Gurten Festival / T-Shirt


The Gurten is what the Swiss call Bern's "Haus-berg", meaning Bern's "home mountain".

It's a mound at the back side of the city and every summer for the last thirty years or so, the Gurten has hosted the Gurten Festival, an imaginatively named music festival. It's a mix of big acts and local heroes, and is small and friendly rather than huge and muddy, which many of the festivals back home seem to be. We had great weather this year and I saw Manu Chao and Mousse T headline the fourth and last night. Awesome. Reamonn are playing in the photo above, a German group with an Irish frontman (they sounded like U2). More on www.gurtenfestival.ch/