Accidental Attractions

Thursday, August 1 was the Swiss national day. National tradition has it as a fairly quiet celebration, group dinners and bonfires in each small commune. We wandered down to the lake, and played on the beach as the sun set. Families began to show up and set off fireworks, and looking along the lakeshore I could see an apparently endless series of lakeshore bonfires and fireworks. A beautiful evening, and a heartfelt but low-key celebration.

The Saturday Lake Parade was a little different. I expected decorated floats with costumed people on them. Instead, I spent the evening dancing in the streets with thousands of other folks as flatbed trucks full of DJs, sound equipment and scantily dressed people rolled slowly by. The parade lasted for hours, and even in the intermittant rain the celebration was intense and fun.

The trucks all ended up just outside of town on the shore, where stages had been set up and the music and the party could continue all night.

A nice addition to the floats in the parade were the beer and condom vehicles. If you wanted beer (or a condom), you just walked up and asked for one as a truck or car went by. Beers you generally had to pay for, although there were also 'beer exchange' trucks which would give you a free soda for an empty beer bottle. Guess they wanted to minimize hangovers by keeping fluids up...

The revellers on the street were dressed just as wildly as the dancers on the floats, with whom they occasionally traded places. For a sample of images from the parade, have a look at my pictures

... or, you can also see others at this site.

Looking forward to the next fète...