Some 250,000 visitors, more than 35 million francs in benefits for the region, the success of the event is surprising at a time when other events of this type have disappeared. Diving into the belly of Martigny, capital of Valais for ten days
Published on October 4, 2024 at 7:59 p.m. / Modified on October 4, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.
There is genius in the formula that the man serves us, as soon as we arrive at the Valais Fair: “If you’re there, it’s almost useless. If you’re not there, everyone knows.” Director of the Setelec company, specializing in solar and electricity, Stéphane Haefliger compares the Fair to politics. The thirty-year-old knows something about this: he is also a candidate for Le Center in the municipal elections in mid-October, in Sion. The question was: by what miracle, recipe or artifice did the Foire du Valais achieve success while other trade fairs have collapsed miserably?
Like every year, at the beginning of October, Valais slows down. Martigny supplants Sion as capital of the canton. And everyone meets at the Fair. Two of your servants have volunteered to solve the enigma of Octodurian success: a native and inhabitant of Sion and a Martigneraine exiled in Geneva whose memories of the Comptoir, ancestor of the Foire du Valais, go back to childhood. With the only breviary being the customary regulation in four articles which regulars advise to adhere to in order to resist over time: drink water; sit down to eat; coming home when the doors close; only drink Fendant – in other words, do not mix alcohols.
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