Basler Fasnacht (Basel Carnival) Festival Tour, Switzerland

About Basler Fasnachat Festival: The Basler Fasnachat Festival is one of the prominent Swiss Festival and as the Swiss are known to do the things differently so are their festivities. The Spring festivities begin later in the month in entire region of Europe but the Switzerland stay ahead of the rest of the countries in celebrating and the Basler Fasnacht Festival is known to be a part of it. The beginning of the Fasnacht is on first Monday which comes just after the Ash Wednesday and it is a mixture of Joie De Vivre which takes the celebration to melancholy along with disguises in the form of death which is a century old traditions.

How to Celebrate Basler Fasnachat Festival: The most striking difference which could be seen in other carnivals is the strict separation of spectators along with activists and “The various Cliques” where the members prepare all year long for the floats with costumes and Schnitzelbank are said to be the Center of the carnival. The Basler Fasnacht Festival has no Prince and Princess attending it and it is totally open for the public who remain the spectator as well as organizer in the event. The on lookers take the stand and also along the route which the parade takes making it one of the most impressive and important event which reminds of the “Morgestraich” is at 4:00 A.M. on the dot and it takes the entire inner city plunged into darkness which also includes the street illumination.

Once the black out is done one could here sound of drums and pipes in the Basler Fasnacht Festival which is the most exciting event. The stretch is illuminated with huge lanterns and also it comes into the view with long line of cliques and also the traditional costumes with masks being the prominent one’s as the performers only wears masks but the onlookers do not take the masks into stride. The people do not take into singing or dancing along in the streets but watch the procession seriously and also rarely they get drunk but the performers are frowned upon but they are certainly shown the solidarity with the event by wearing official plaque on their lapels. The Basler Fasnacht Festival has plaques which are either in the Bronze,Silver or the Gold and although to few people it may not look like a fun then there are a lot of other fun factors associated with it.

The other events which are associated with Basler Fasnacht Festival associated with it have certain games such as balls, parties, Schnitzelbank performances along with the spectators who just feel like putting the hair down and the Morgestraich along with Cortege which belong to the cliques and the stage performance is found to be participation of more than thousand spectators who stand all along in the cold weather with freezing feet for many hours to get the best view of the procession. The many of the restaurants which is known as “baizes” also fill their glasses upto the brim with Mehisuppe I.e. another kind of mulled wine and the next day the floats with different themes. The political satiric performances called “Schnitzelbank” takes place which are part of the floats with different themes and the drummers and pipers roam all around playing the tunes thus making people feel cheerful all the way.

 

Location: Basel, Switzerland