Basler Fasnacht

On Monday 27^th of February, my friend Petit Filoux and I embarked on a crazy day trip to Basel to attend the Basler fasnacht, the largest and best carnival in la Suisse. It all kicked off (without us at this stage) at 4am with lantern processions in the streets of the old town, but we joined in for the main street parade early afternoon.

To say that is a seriously big event is an understatement. Shops closed, Basel citizens are off work and 12000 people split up between over a hundred “cliques” (groups) spend a whole year preparing for the event, thinking up themes and making costumes and masks by hand. Thousands of spectators come from France, Germany, the rest of Switzerland and further afield to watch.

My friend and I found a good spot on the bridge linking the old town to the new town from which to watch the madness unfold. We stood there for nearly 3 hours and by the time we decided to leave, we still hadn’t seen the last of the street parade! However by that time our legs were aching, we were covered in confetti and started to feel annoyed that the kids next to us were obviously much better at getting sweets from the passing carnival cars which were throwing them into the crowd. This is what we came home with…

Probably the one and only time in my life I will accept a carrot and turnip-looking vegetable from a dressed up man…

Apart from our disappointment of not succeeding too well in being sweets or flowers, we had a real blast throughout, shouting, giggling and being shocked, on occasions, by the Swiss political incorrectness that day. Many of the groups taking place in the parade had very political messages, from sharing their views on the Greek situation, Berlusconi and the EU…

…to protesting against nuclear plants and advocating renewable energies

…Russia was also given a hard time!

…and so were new technologies with a group in particular protesting against children’s addiction to them

There were also many groups of children taking place in the parade with some very sweet and original costumes…

I took over 160 photos during the day but I shall leave you with a few collages of my favourites

If you ever find yourself in la Suisse during fasnacht season (end of February), I can only recommend you take a day trip to Basel for the occasion as I have never seen anything like it before. If you’re not in la Suisse but are thinking of visiting, a long weekend around fasnacht time would also be worth your while. I hear that the fasnacht in Luzern is also really good so I may try and go there next year for my yearly dose of Swiss madness!