Mysterious Many visitors at the Neuchâtel grape harvest festival despite cloudy weather

SDA

29.9.2024 - 19:24

The cloudy weather at the weekend had no effect on the grape harvest festival in Neuchâtel. The record attendance of 350,000 at last year's Fête des vendanges was probably reached again with Sunday's flower parade.

"It's a wonderful 97th edition. We didn't have too much rain and it fell at the right time. And the population cooperated enormously," Eric Leuba, spokesman for the event, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Sunday.

The festival attracted around 230,000 visitors between Friday and Saturday. The children's parade and the pyrotechnic show attracted many people on Saturday. "The hundred stands I visited - out of a total of almost 280 - achieved an extraordinary turnover," said Leuba.

The flower parade, one of the last in Europe and the largest in the past 20 years, drew the crowds on Sunday afternoon. According to Leuba, never before have so many seats been sold.

The spectacle, consisting of 14 floats, was 2.2 kilometers long and included more than 1500 extras representing numerous associations. Visitors were also able to see crazy inventions, the presence of fire-eaters and artists on stilts. Almost ten tons of flowers were used for the parade.

After Elisabeth Baume-Schneider last year, the Federal Council was represented on Sunday by Beat Jans, who received a generous helping of confetti.

SDA