Baden, located 27
kilometers west of Zurich, is usually a quiet spa town. But every ten years, it
hosts a ten-day festival that draws a million visitors. In terms of comparative
population size, imagine 475 million people descending on New York City for an
event. (A number greater than the entire population of the United States.)
Why is the
Badenfahrt festival so popular? The name, meaning, “Baden goes,” comes from the
Middle Ages when the spas at Baden were a popular escape for dignitaries.
During the Reformation, many Protestant Zurichers found themselves fleeing to
Baden for the kind of elusive fun that only Catholics could have back then. But
the real party began in 1847, when Switzerland’s first train route opened. The
“Spanischbrötli-Bahn,” which went from Zurich to Baden, made it easy for
Protestant Zurichers to come to “crazy” Catholic Baden to eat sweet pastries
(like Spanischbrötli, for which the
train was named), sing, and let loose at the thermal spas.
Swiss people tend
to relax most when given an organized reason to do so. The first Badenfahrt
festival in 1923 proved this to be true. Today the festival features parades,
fireworks, carnival rides, several entertainment stages, and that oh-so-Swiss
trust that allows a million people into an unfenced festival area knowing that
they’ll all buy the festival pass anyway. Besides, how can you rope off an
entire city?
The Badenfahrt festival
features hundreds of creatively themed food structures representing everything
that Swiss industriousness is capable of. Forget a simple food tent; at
Badenfahrt, the Swiss prove that the Greeks aren’t the only ones to build Greek
temples. The Swiss build them too, along with sand beaches, the Eiffel Tower,
and Japanese Gardens. Give the Swiss some scaffolding, and they’ll give you the
Taj Mahal—even if its only purpose is to serve sausage for ten days.
Aside from
Zurich’s Street Parade, Badenfahrt is the festival to witness the Swiss as you
never have before—shrieking at 3 a.m., throwing beer bottles into the street,
and dancing to rap music. To experience Badenfahrt is to experience the Swiss
at their most fun-loving and free. Until of course, the clock strikes midnight
on the tenth day of the festival and street sweepers arrive on the twelfth ring
to start cleaning up the mess, making the entire experience feel like a figment
of your imagination.
Tips:
The big, once-every-ten-years festival
takes place in Baden from August 18-27, 2017.
Spanischbrötli pastries, a specialty from Baden that
dates back to at least 1780, are a featured food at the festival, but you can
try the sweet buttery combination of hazelnut and carrot almost anytime at the
Moser’s bakery in Baden.
Moser’s
Backparadies
Schlossbergplatz 2
5400 Baden
+41 (0)56 222 42
55
For more
information:
Read The Frau’s article in The Independent about Badenfahrt.
Read 99.9 Ways to Travel Switzerland Like a Local for 98.9 more tips like this one.
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