Sometimes it really happens (shock!), I don’t need to travel far out of town to join in for a music festival. It’s kind of surreal for me just to be able to get to the venue in nearly 20 minutes: while the most festivals are happening spread all over the country, this time everything was concentrated in the middle of my hometown Zurich. And as I could see during these two days, the M4Music certainly is one of the most influencing festivals in this part of the country.
April is a buzzing month, because slowly but surely, I’m able to wake up from my brief festival hibernation of three months and stick my ears wherever I can in order to enjoy familiar tunes plus discover some surprising new ones. Gosh, how I missed that! And what’s the best thing to open this year’s festival season properly? Exactly, heading on top of the mountain, for the awaited Zermatt Unplugged.
After a series of non amusing events lately, I couldn’t really imagine that my girl’s weekend out of town would join the group. It’s been a while since I’ve hit the airport, for my taste, so it lightly disappointed me to know that the so awaited gateaway turned out to a solo trip. So I basically had the choice: flush everything down the toilet, or get out of town to give myself that break anyway.
A couple of years ago, Resident Advisor released a collection of short films between 20 and 30 minutes, picturing the electronic music scene in different cities worldwide. They were shown two years ago during Sónar by Day in Barcelona and as well last Fall at the Amsterdam Dance Event. These little masterpieces are a nice insight into a scene that constantly changes, lives and struggles, even for those who never really gave it a try.
If I will ever be able to choose in which kind of place worldwide I want to live, then probably somewhere with a vibe like in this cute little town. What impressed me the most during my trip on the Australian eastcoast weren’t the huge cities like Sydney – but more the smaller oasis spread around the CBDs. Let yourself get wrapped in. This is Eumundi state of mind.
If I have to do a little retrospective about my personal 2015, it would be quite hard to decide what hits my own top 5. I lost the count of how many flights took me all over the planet and I have too many experiences still floating around in my head. In terms of travelling, I think I can put everything in one big pot, because I was never disappointed of the places I chose to see. When it comes to all the musical events I’ve been to, I can be only super grateful either: I’ve seen as many festivals and live acts like never before, and it’s very easy for me to make a choice of my favourite events.
I saw a good amount of cute mountain places in the past year, and everyone of them was characteristic in its own way. Most of the time I was told that they were going to be full of chic crowds and fur wearing ladies with a chihuahua in their bag. I didn’t really notice that, well, until I got to Verbier – and it was kind of easy to see why.
The first part of December was quite busy for me – I never thought I was going to be in the mountains two weekends in a row, and both times to attend music festivals. Well, lucky me! It’s always nice to chase the sun even if the temperatures are freezing. This second ride took me out of the urban world and could have brought me everywhere. Seriously, 4 hours of train rides: I could have reached Milan, Munich or other places, but no no, I was ‘just’ heading up to Verbier.
Davos is always a great place to escape the city jungle. Lucky as I am, I can enjoy some fresh mountain air within a 2 hours train ride from Zurich, which is great. And everytime I leave, I tell myself that I should do it more often. Because it’s not only about winter sports: it could be wellness, simply a walk, the heavy mountain food or an almost endless night in a bar. As you might already know, this weekend was about music. And my host during these three days was, once again, the perfect fit.
Two weekends ago, winter clearly started to kick in here in Switzerland. And what better occasion to make things easier and escape a bit to the mountains again, where the chance for sun and having some warm rays on your sweater is way higher than the grey and foggy city. Obviously I didn’t go to Davos for any type of winter sports: I never learned it, and the idea of rolling myself in wet cold snow disappeared maybe at the age of 12. I made all my way up for the 8th edition of the Songbird Festival.
bohemianstella 