Zermatt-Magazin-23

Blindtext | Zermatt Magazin 21
additions. So far, the parades and performances
have always taken place on Sunday afternoons.
However, the parade has now been moved to a Saturday
afternoon. Although this isn’t everyone’s cup
of tea, as local businesses had to persevere with the
closures of the main roads during the 1.5 hours of
the parade. "But we are so glad, as the village is so
understanding," says Ballmann.
On Sunday, performances will now take place in
alternative locations. The groups will be distributed
across many different mountain restaurants, where
guests can delight in their rustic sounds and singing.
"The goal was to also bring a folklore feeling
closer to the mountain guests," says Ballmann. It
also means that participants can enjoy the end of
their weekend and appreciate the impressive landscapes
that surround the venues.
A printed festival guide is now available to everyone.
It includes the most important highlights of
the festival, as well as information about the history
of the village. It should also allow the locals to learn
something, as "many locals still don’t know very
much about our history," explained Ballmann.
The final new addition, added since the 52 nd festival,
is that the groups who arrive for the parade are
invited to a raclette party with a raffle on the Friday
evening. "Many groups like to arrive a day early,"
says Ballmann. This allows for a pleasant start to
the weekend.
According to Ballmann, the overall aim of these
new additions is to extend the festival weekend,
particularly for those groups from outside the
country who have travelled a long way to get here.
The feedback so far has been extremely positive.
The groups stayed longer in the village and had
time to appreciate the new programme. Ballman
also said that it’s been advantageous in a tourism
point of view. For example, it’s a good way to increase
lunchtime business, as people have always
got to eat.
In future it would be good for the festival to appeal
to more tourists. At the moment, they mainly just
attend the parade, whilst the locals populate the
festival area. "It’s a place where people meet", says
Ballmann. "There’s somewhere to go for everyone
in the village."
But the festival is not supposed to grow. Ballmann
says "we want to keep within the traditional programme."
She doesn’t think it needs to keep getting
bigger. One of the festival’s greatest charms is
that it affords people the opportunity to meet up
time and time again. At the core of the colourful
traditional costumes and old familiar melodies, the
Zermatt Folklore Festival is characterised by one
thing above all: the community that emerges from
it.
Léonie Hagen