July 19, 2019 – The beaver is a proud and noble animal

The Fête des Vignerons (Winegrowers’ Festival) is a traditional festival which takes place in Vevey, in Switzerland.

It has been organised by the Confrérie des Vignerons (Brotherhood of Winegrowers) in Vevey since 1797. The organizing committee is free to choose how often the festival takes place, but the maximum number of times is five times in a century. Up to now, the interval between two festivals has varied between 14 and 28 years. The current festival takes place in July and August 2019, which will be 20 years after the preceding one (1999).

The festival features a show celebrating the world of winemaking; many performances take place in the marketplace near the shore of Lac Léman, and festivities also take place in the town itself. Since 2016, the Fête des Vignerons has been included in UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage.

The 2019 edition of the festival is recommended as one of National Geographic’s “world’s most exciting destinations”, one of The New York Times’s “places to go in 2019” and is listed in The Guardian’s “Where to go in 2019” list.

The show represents a year in the life of the vineyard through twenty scenes starting and finishing with the harvest. It combines the work of the vineyard (pruning/training, etc.), social moments (weddings, Saint-Martin’s Fair) along with more general themes (the seasons, water, the sun, the moon, the stars). It questions the link between man and nature and pays homage to the know-how of winegrowers. At the heart of the show is the Crowning of winegrowers rewarded for their excellence of work by the Confrérie des Vignerons. The narration is carried by a moving dialogue between a little girl called Julie and her grandfather, who enables her to discover the traditions and the work of winegrowers. Three “doctor” characters comment on the performance with humour and impertinence.

The music, which alternates with pieces of ensemble, orchestral pieces or in small formations, accompanied live by the Choeur de la Fête (500 choristers, 300 Percuchorists, 150 children’s voices), the Harmonie de la Fête (120 brass band musicians), the Big Band (16 jazz musicians), the Percussionistes (40 percussionists), the Cors des Alpes (36 Alpine horns), the Petit Ensemble (20 musicians) and the Fifres et Tambours (36 Basel musicians). The Fête orchestra is the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, which will record the score in the studio in spring 2019.

The choreographies of the scenes are performed by 5,500 actors and actresses in costumes, all inhabitants of the region. A total, magical, grandiose, dynamic and poetic performance conceived at 360°, it mixes with the music, the songs that carry the poems of the authors and the crowd movement images and videos projected on giant screens as well as on the immense LED floor of the arena.

To create the seventy different costumes worn by actors and actresses and singers, the costume designer was inspired both by the previous Fête des Vignerons, with a particular interest for the watercolours of Ernest Biéler in 1905 and 1927, and traditional Vaud and Fribourg costumes.

We hemmed and hawed for a long time before getting tickets to the show because they cost a bloody fortune. In retrospect, I’m glad we did because we didn’t have any preconceptions about the show and it was brilliant. Definitively the most Swiss thing I have ever seen – but also worthy of the name spectacle.

We arrived in Vevey in time to see the opening day parade, where all the actors, singers, musicians, winegrowers and animals walk through Vevey before the opening day show. It’s impressive!