Friday, June 17, 2011

INTERLOCKEN, YODELING FESTIVAL, Fri.,June 17

It was like hearing angels voices! So many styles of yodeling - solos, duets, trios, quartets, larger clubs (even 21 from a club in Calvary, Alberto, Canada) - singing love songs, hymns, peppy songs....

The festival opened yesterday with children's groups competing. This morning the booths opened, selling food, clothes, souvenirs and giving away trinkets. As we wondered and got a lay of the land, we came upon groups of children or alphorn players performing in the sidewalks - all in their gorgeous canton costumes. What talent!


Adult competitions got underway in the afternoon. First we went to the alphorn players. It was like a concert. People sat in awed silence. Some of it reminded me of bugle music - apparently it is not easy to play the alphorn - no valves or slides - you just play it with your lips. Nor is it easy to carry around!

When the flag throwing competition got underway, we switched to that. The atmosphere was one of a sports event. Similar to baton twirling but more complex and requiring a lot of upper body strength. Quite awesome!

The real delight,however, was the yodeling competition with performances every 10 minutes going on simultaneously in 13 large venues. We spent the evening in a large ballroom in the Victoria Hotel and were thoroughly entertained.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

No comments:

Post a Comment