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Alphorn (Cor des Alpes) Festival

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  • ABROAD
Jul 31 2012

The 11th international alphorn festival of Nendaz took place in the canton of Valais in Switzerland on the 20, 21 & 22 July. The Festival is a musicians meeting place, with an official alphorn competition, concerts, yodelling, performances by folk groups, traditional dances and spectacularly, the ‘morceaux d’ensemble’ (with over 150 players). In short, it’s a festival dedicated to tradition and folklore, with spectators and participants coming together from all over France and Switzerland. There were 70 entries into the competition, divided into 6 categories (for the under 16’s, solo musicians, groups & those who had won or previously gained […]

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Combat De Reines

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May 14 2012

These are not just cows, these are Hérens cows, and 199 of them battled it out to be crowned the ‘Queen of Cows’ (french: Combat De Reines) to a crowd of about 12,000 to 13,000 on the 5th and 6th May in Aproz, in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. They’re named after the alpine Val d’Hérens region of Switzerland. The black, brown or dark red coloured cattle are very muscular and have short and broad heads sporting strong horns. The breed is unique to the alpine regions. Cow fighting is said to have originated when the villages of the […]

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Silvesterchlausen in Urnäsch

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Jan 04 2012

New Years eve is celebrated in a very special and unique way in many villages in the Swiss canton of Appenzell, but only in Urnäsch do they celebrate it again on January 13 (New Year’s Eve, according to the Julian calendar). The tradition of chläuse, a custom over 200 years old has developed from simple begging in disguise, into an expression of creative handwork. The Chläuse wear robes and masks which require a great deal of time and effort to make, each of which falls into one of three very different categories: the Schöne (beautiful), who wear richly decorated headdresses […]

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Lucerne Fasnacht

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  • ABROAD
Mar 10 2011

The Lucerne Carnival takes place over 4 days in the run up to lent. The events start on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, known as Dirty Thursday, and ends the morning of Ash Wednesday. The focus of the carnival are the parades that contain brass bands, (called Güügemusig) which fill the streets with the sound of trumpets and drums, and residents dressed in the most incredible range of costumes I’ve ever seen, with floats to match. These are pictures from Fat Monday (GüMo), when the second parade took place through the city which was awash with colour, music and plenty […]

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Schwing festival

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Jul 12 2007

Schwingen is a Swiss variant of wrestling, and a Swiss national sport. The fight takes place on the ring, a circular area with a diameter of 12 meters that is covered with sawdust. The two opponents wear short pants made of jute over their clothes. Holding each other at these pants the fighters try to throw each other onto their backs. A fight is won when the winner holds the opponent’s pants with at least one hand and both the opponent’s shoulders touch the ground. By tradition the winner brushes the saw dust off the loser’s back after the fight. […]

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Jodlerfest

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Jul 12 2007

Keeping with Swiss tradition, the alphorn, flag throwing and yodeling all being demonstrated at Jodlerfest in a small village outside Lucerne.  

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About this blog

The vast majority of posts in this blog are about quirky & eccentric competitions & festivals. I started it in 2006 in France with a competition I’ll never forget. Where contestants battle it out to become the World Champion Pig Squeeler, or ‘Cri du Cochon’. I had little knowledge back then of quite how far my pursuit of these kind of events would lead me. I’ve travelled all over Britain (and occasionally further afield) to capture our curiosities and quirks. There’s nothing uniquely eccentric about the British, you’ll find people all over the world up to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities, but we do have a remarkable capacity to embrace the madness. ‘A Brit Different’ is the book that was born from it, my labour of love! So what next? There’s always something interesting going on, so watch this space, only time will tell!

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© Emma Wood 2021. Moral Rights Asserted. No part of Emma Wood's photographs may be copied or distributed by any means without her explicit permission.