(19 Jul 2019) LEAD IN
Switzerland is hosting one of the biggest and rarest wine festivals in the world for the first time in 20 years.
"Fete des Vignerons" follows a centuries-old tradition and is being held in the town of Vevey.
STORY-LINE
Around the vineyards of Vevey in Switzerland they're partying like it's 1999.
That's because one of the biggest and rarest wine festivals in the world is being held here for the first time in 20 years.
The 12th "Fete des Vignerons," or Winemakers Festival, is the latest instalment in a centuries-old tradition of celebrating vineyard workers.
Festival organisers have pulled out the stops for the celebration in the lakeside town of Vevey near famous Swiss terraced vineyards which are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
"This represents my, region, my culture— the beauty of this place and all of Switzerland but especially Vevey, the lake, the vineyards, the animals, the people and the costumes too! That's it, a message of peace, of joy, of love, of celebration," says Fanny Rupp, a festival participant wearing a wide-brimmed hat and traditional dress.
Today Vevey is best known as home to the global headquarters for food and drinks giant Nestle. In 2016, the U.N. cultural agency classified the festival itself as "intangible cultural heritage" of Switzerland.
Among the big-ticket items in the 100 million Swiss franc (100 million US Dollar) budget for the festival is the purpose-built arena - big enough to hold 20,000 people, or more than the entire town's population.
Towering over Lake Geneva, the venue is hosting an Olympics or Super Bowl-style show with dancers, music and other festivities. As many as a million people, including 400,000 show-goers, are expected in Vevey while the festival runs through until 11 August.
Above all, it's a colourful, timeless celebration of Swiss-ness tied up in a festival for winegrowers.
"It is something with the wine, with the grapes and all the possibility you have to taste the production, the local production. We don't have carnival every year. We have to wait one generation to make a real big fest. It is over sized," says Claude Rupp, who is also visiting today's festival.
During the initial parade on Thursday, marching band players parade through the town, then take a break from the Swiss sunshine with glasses more often filled with cold beer than wine.
This year, organisers are going high-tech with what's billed as the world's largest outdoor LED-lit stage, and they say this year they want to "feminize" the show in a country where all women got the right to vote only in the 1980s.
Over 5,000 dancers, actors and extras are taking part in the festival, which features parades and music and lots of alcohol consumption But the centrepiece is the "Crowning" of the winegrowers, an award given to standouts in the field.
""It is not really a celebration of wine, we celebrate the work of the people who work in the vineyard, because in France or in Switzerland we do have the Fete de Vendange (harvest), Fete de Vendange you drink the wine, Fete des Vignerons we please the people who work, if they work well of course the wine should be nice too" says Frederic Hohl, the Festival's Executive Director.
The festival has its roots in a competition that began in the 17th century to ensure quality wines from the region, with a grading system that often became censorious - with some winegrowers who didn't pass all but shunned.
The show, features 5, 500 performers and will be played nightly, represents a "year in the life of the vineyard," organisers say, through 20 scenes beginning and culminating with the harvest.
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