Festivals Bern Gurtenfestival draws positive balance with 73,000 guests

The organizers of the 41st Bern Gurten Festival can look back on a successful major event. Over the four days, they recorded around 73,000 admissions.

"So far it has been quiet in a positive sense", media spokeswoman Lena Fischer told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Saturday afternoon. There have been no incidents worth mentioning and the program has gone ahead as planned, apart from a few cancellations beforehand.

Despite the hot weather, the paramedics were not overloaded either: "People know how to look after themselves," said Fischer. In addition, the care team's services were increased this year and were used extensively.

Admissions at pre-pandemic level

The closing evening with concerts by Canadian pop legend Nelly Furtado and Zurich songwriter Faber was still to come on Saturday. The last two days of the festival were completely sold out, with 20,000 people expected to attend each. On Wednesday, 15,000 people made the pilgrimage to Bern's local mountain, on Thursday it was 18,000. 55,000 music enthusiasts visited the festival over the four days.

That is a comparable number to the last pre-pandemic edition in 2019. The audience record of 98,5000 admissions was set at last year's anniversary, although the festival lasted five days back then as an exception.

Patent Ochsner caused a rush

This year, 135 musicians were on the program. There was an even gender balance among the performers, but Nelly Furtado was the only woman among the six headliners announced. "We would have liked to have had more female headliners, but unfortunately it's not a request concert," said Fischer.

One of the musical highlights was the Bernese cult band Patent Ochsner, who easily filled the hill in front of the main stage. According to Fischer, the home game led to a premature rush, which is why the queue in front of the Gurtenbahn was very long at times.

Next year's Gurtenfestival will take place from July 16 to 19, with advance ticket sales due to start at the end of the year.

SDA