After the children’s elections last week, the primaries paraded through the streets of the Vaud capital this Wednesday. Between Olympic flames, cosmonauts and big drops.
Lausanne, June 26, 2024, Lausanne Schools Wood Festival.
FLORIAN CELLA/24 hours
Published today at 5:54 p.m.
The afternoon rain didn’t stop the little ones. In any case, more would have been needed to dampen their fervor. This Wednesday, exactly one week later children’s classes, it was the primaries (3P to 5P) who paraded for the traditional Wood Festival in Lausanne. With the same costume theme: the 30th anniversary of the Lausanne Olympic capital label.
Nearly 4,000 students took part in the primary school parade in Lausanne this Wednesday.
FLORIAN CELLA/24 hours
Half an hour before the procession kicks off, in Montbenon Park, the excitement is already in full swing. The esplanade is teeming with the 213 classes participating in the event. This still represents almost 4000 students. A cat would not find her babies there. The final adjustments are made to the costumes. The bagpipe players of the Traditional Pipe Band of Lausanne are warming up. African musicians too.
Many colleges have complied with the directive. There are Olympic flames and laurels adorning children everywhere, like the Collège de la Croix d’Ouchy, little Asterixes, Obélixes and druids – at the Olympics of course (Montoie), gold medalists in underwear short (Provence and Malley) or even proudly brandished rings (Prélaz).
Lausanne, June 26, 2024, Wood Festival of Lausanne schools.
FLORIAN CELLA/24 hours
Others defied the order. We meet fans of the 80s in a gym tonic style (Pierrefleur), the unmissable Guillaume Tell (Plaines du Loup), pharaohs (Chissiez) and Neptunes with blue tridents (Florimont). The Palme d’Or for originality went to the Collège des Figuiers with its cosmonauts and clouds. Not too Olympic? “We’ve been marching for the Wood Festival for twenty-five years, so the Olympics were a great success. The astronauts are in keeping with the theme developed at Les Figuiers this year. The sky and space,” confides a guide.
It is still not raining as the procession sets off. The pace is set by the trustee Grégoire Junod and an almost complete Municipality. Following perched on a float are the members of the Lausanne Musical Security Union. And the thousands of children all behind.
Lausanne, June 26, 2024, Wood Festival of Lausanne schools.
FLORIAN CELLA/24 hours
A crowd of parents and grandparents are gathered along the route. A mother calls out to her son who is parading. He responds with a wave of his hand and snaps at his little friend in front of him, who had stopped his walk. Fathers run along the sidewalks, cameras slung over their shoulders. A grandmother comes to kiss her grandson in the middle of the road. He wipes his cheek.
And suddenly the first drops. The umbrellas are blooming. The rainbow children from Prélaz college are there to remind us that after the rain will come good weather. One day no doubt. A child trips. He gets up immediately, thinking of the reward at the end of the course: the Milan park and its carousels. The icing on the cake: the miniature Luna Park is closed to parents until 4 p.m.
“Families”
Every Wednesday, “24 Heures” offers you a selection of articles on the themes that make up the daily lives of families: health, education, leisure and discoveries of all kinds.
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Laurent Antonoff has been a journalist in the Vaud section since 1990. After covering the regions of Northern Vaud and the Riviera, he joined the Lausanne editorial team at the turn of the millennium. A novelist in his spare time, he won the Berner Zeitung Local Journalism Prize in 1998.More informations
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