Keystone-SDA
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June 30, 2024 – 4:35 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) Swiss President Viola Amherd attended the Federal Costume Festival in Zurich on Sunday. She did not wear a traditional Valais costume, but a pink suit.
With her professional attire, she cannot compete here, the Valais native acknowledged in a brief speech. Her predecessor Alain Berset had an easier time last summer in Zurich. All he had to do was put a feather boa around his neck to be dressed for the occasion, she noted, referring to Alain Berset’s appearance at the Street Parade.
The Traditional Costume Festival requires a much greater effort. “I admire your costumes all the more,” Amherd said. Traditional costumes are a celebration of diversity. In a time of polarization and score-settling, it is all the more important to come together to put on such an event, he added.
Zurich City President Corine Mauch wore her great-great-great-grandmother’s traditional Bernese costume for the occasion.
No incident
Representatives of the governments of 16 cantons as well as numerous members of Parliament were invited to the official ceremony on Sunday. The colorful procession which passed through the city center was the highlight of the day. “For once, a Street Parade without thunderous bass,” noted Ms. Mauch.
Around 100,000 visitors attended the three-day festival in Zurich. The event was “joyful and peaceful,” said Max Binder, chairman of the organising committee and a former Zurich SVP national councillor. There were no incidents. The police mainly posed for selfies with the people in traditional costume, he noted.
After 1939 and 1974, Zurich hosted the Federal Festival of Traditional Costumes for the third time. It takes place every twelve years.
