Fetes de Geneve poster 2009, ©FDG 2009

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Jean-Pierre Jobin, the president of Genève Tourisme, the organizers of the Fêtes de Geneve, says that the 2009 festivities attracted over two million people, and that this year’s edition was “exceptional”, thanks in great part to the weather. The budget this year was about CHF 3 million, and the Fêtes are estimated to have brought in CHF 120m in revenues for the city and canton of Geneva.

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Fetes de Geneve, photo: Sean Ecker

Fetes de Geneve, photo: Sean Ecker

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - More than 500,000 people turned out for the musical big-bangs end to the 63rd edition of Geneva’s colourful Fetes de Geneve.

The fireworks and music display, reportedly the largest in the city’s history, started at 22:00 and lasted for almost an hour.

It was a treat! Various pyrotechnical companies competed to show off their best displays. Several of the fireworks episodes had oriental themes, such as palm trees. The city increased the number of launch pads to a total of 15 around the end of Lake Geneva this year. After the fireworks display, the city was in pedestrian gridlock.

Related: TdG, TSR

Fetes de Geneve, Geneva's annual musical fireworks show

Geneva, Locarno, Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Storms are building up and showers are promised for all areas on Saturday, not the best news for the Street Parade in Zurich or those who like to stroll around Geneve during the Fêtes de Geneve.

The good news is that skies should clear, particularly in the west, late Saturday afternoon, just in time for the big musical fireworks show in Geneva, a mustn’t miss annual event. They start at 22:00 Saturday 8 August. This year the city has added three new platforms in the lake, to the existing 12, so the show extends slightly further along the lakefront. Expect traffic, expect crowds, and find a good viewing spot early.

Take your pick: party in the Alps near Sion or on Swiss city streets

Zurich's street parade: definitely urban

Zurich and Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – You have to go out of your way to avoid festivals in Switzerland in the summer, starting with the two big July music festivals, Montreux Jazz Festival and Paleo in Nyon, with several smaller but very popular festivals around the same time. The Fêtes de Geneve is underway, with music and the region’s biggest fireworks Saturday 9 August. Zurich is also holding its big party this coming weekend, the 20th year of the colourful techno Street Parade or Switzerland’s biggest rave, whose organizers say attracted 850,000 people in 2008. On a smaller scale, but also celebrating an anniversary, its 15th, the Guinness Irish Festival in Sion features the Dubliners and the Chieftains.

New Alinghi 5 on Lake Geneva 28 July, dwarfing other craft: it will sail from Lausanne to Geneva 1 August with a fleet of local pleasure boats

Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It’s hard to beat the temperature range, 15-27C, or the clear skies that Meteoswiss is offering us Thursday to Saturday, with Geneva’s annual summer festival getting underway Thursday and the Swiss national holiday Saturday (see GenevaLunch events pages for details). Organize your picnics and barbecues for the start of the weekend because by Sunday afternoon too much of a good thing is forecast to degenerate into thunderstorms.

Photo, Alinghi: click to view larger. GenevaLunch feature on the new, high tech boat specially made for the next America’s Cup sailing race.

Fêtes de Genève, fun on the ground and in the sky

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva and Switzerland’s biggest outdoor party kicks off tomorrow, 30 July, as the Fêtes de Genève get underway, after a two-week warmup called the pre-Fêtes. Music, art and food stalls in the streets, lakeside fair rides, a slow-up Sunday 2 August, spectacular fireworks Saturday 8 August: they’re all part of the fun.

And to put you in the mood the city is calling on amateur photographers to get out their cameras and start shooting their entries for the four seasons of Geneva photography contest, with tempting prizes.

Check it out on the GenevaLunch events page. Here’s where it is happening:

Title: Fetes de Geneve
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: The traditional Geneva Festival kicks off 30 July but the “pre-fetes” or pre-fest concerts and activities start on the 16th. Food, music, carnival rides and more on the shore of Lake Geneva. The host of honor this year is the Sultanate of Oman.
Start Date: 16 Jul 2009
End Date: 09 Aug 2009

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva will host a 2009 edition of the fabled 1001 nights when the Sultanat of Oman comes to town as the guest of honour for the Fêtes de Genève. The fete, which is Switzerland’s largest tourist attraction, consists of two weeks of partying and music in the streets followed by nine days of fun fair and a giant fireworks show. The pre-fete is 16-29 July, followed by the Fêtes themselves until 9 August.

The giant party is home to 150 food stalls and restaurants, 65 rides and 120 musical offers every evening. The 2008 Fêtes brought the city 15 million visitors, with Geneva earning an estimated CHF120 million. The fireworks over the lake are widely considered some of the best in Switzerland.

Details: city’s Fêtes de Genève web site, Tribune de Genève article

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - In a summer of capacity-crowd festivals, starting with Montreux and Nyon, Geneva officials Monday cooed over the latest success: the Fêtes de Geneve, the city’s 10-day music and fun festival, pulled in some two million people.

For the grand finale fireworks Saturday half a million people, reports RSR (Fre).  The only rough spot was a glitch at the fireworks, where the jet d’eau was turned on too early, before the final splash of fireworks went off.

Geneva photographer Michel Bobillier, who publishes under the name athos99, provided the photos shown here.

Photos courtesy of athos99 (click on images to view larger). Ed. note: for the complete collection, including 145 spectacular images of fireworks and more from the Geneva festival, visit his blog photo gallery.

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Michel Bobillier, whose photos of the Fetes de Geneve fireworks were published in 2007 by GenevaLunch, has made a bright and fun 120-second montage of the light show, as a warmup to this year’s show Saturday 7 August. Remind yourself why these are some of the best fireworks around, not to be missed!

Photo courtesy of Athos99: Music this week has been memorable, including a popular concert by Michel Lalanne who played to an appreciative audience only four days after surgery.

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 26-year-old American who was crowned Miss Fetes de Geneve Sunday night, and who will reign over the festivities in the city starting Thursday is called – that’s right – Geneva. She was named after her grandmother.

Photo: © athos99, reproduced with permission

photo: Michel Bobillier, 2007

Geneva, Switzerland (Athos99, Fre) – Geneva’s own Nill Klemm, lawyer and songwriter, sang his heart out in the pavillion at the Jardin Anglais to the brave souls who took on the heavy rain during the Fetes de Geneve Wednesday night. The city puts on 120 concerts during the nine-day festival.

photo: Michel Bobillier, 2007, republished with permission

Geneva, Switzerland (Athos99, Fre) – Ian Massera, one of the top Elvis Presley impersonators around, wowed the large crowd that turned out for his band’s concert at the Fetes de Geneve.

Ed. note: This is the first of Michel Bobillier’s photo contributions for GenevaLunch – view larger by clicking on the photo here and check out his web site for more great images from the concert.

"It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the Fete de Geneve! Photo, Betsy Rumble, republished with permission.

Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) - The largest annual party in Switzerland, Geneva’s summer festival (Fetes de Geneve) with its 120 concerts, other events and food stalls, began Friday and benefited from warm, sunny weather over the weekend in to pull in the crowds.

A highlight was the Slowup, with 30,000 people joining in the no-motors 26 km trek. A low point was trouble at a concert in the Jardin Anglais at the start of the festival, where an online-organized protest against French rapper Doc Gynéco’s pro-French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s politics resulted in two arrests, reports the Tribune. Slowup, Fetes de Geneve, both in English

Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – The fireworks for the Fetes de Geneve which kicks off Thursday were put on hold in the afternoon because of lake pollution. Heavy rains Thursday morning caused sewers in the Eaux Vives district in Geneva to overflow into Lake Geneva, causing a large patch of pollution. Boats and barges were ordered not to move in order to avoid the polluted area being displaced, while the city began to cleanup operations.