GstaadLife

Jörg Perreten from Lauenen. Those of you present for the GstaadAlive! talent shows on the Promenade over the past couple of years will be familiar. For the rest of you, best just click to watch the video of his performance on the Germany's 'Das Supertalent' show yourself. In the show, which aired this past Friday evening on RTL, he told of his rough childhood, the divorce of his parents, how he was taken away from his Brazilian mother, put into the care of foster parents where he felt like a slave. He also described his escape into the punk scene, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and his attempted suicide... and how he sees appearing on the show and his talent for music as a chance to get off the street and start anew. We can only wish him the very best for the next round which airs on Saturday September 24 2011 at 20:15 on RTL.

It is Country time again. Trace Adkins, Dailey and Vincent and Laura Bell Bundy (see video above) and Sister Morales are the big names this year. For the detailed program click here. Some tickets are still available, and there is a major side-program that is open to the public. 

This year sees the 11th edition of the music festival La Folia in Rougemont from June 9 to 13 2011 featuring Sebastian Bach. For the detailed program click here or call the tourist office in Rougemont - 026 925 11 62. 

This Easter, the Easter Bunny is bringing some musical eggs to Saanenland. On April 23 20h00 a Swiss folklore show is taking place at the Landhaus in Saanen. Oesch's die Dritten and the band Enzian from Appenzell perform. Tickets can be obtained at the Raiffeisenbank Saanenland in Gstaad. For the more classically-oriented amongst you, there are the Easter concerts in Saanen church on Friday April 22 at 17h00 and on Saturday April 23 at the same time. Joseph Haydn and Antonin Dvorák are being performed led by Roland Neuhaus and Michael Bach. Tickets can be obtained at the tourist offices Gstaad and Saanen.

If you understand German this sounds quite interesting. Journalist Sarah Fasolin has made this movie - The Cheese Makers - as the final work of her studies in contemporary history and social anthropology. It is a movie about the foreign workers on the alps in Switzerland, filmed in the Bernese Oberland. Apparently 30 to 50 % of the workers on our alps are foreigners, so there's some eye-opening stuff in there. She won the first prize at the Science-et-Cité-Festival in Bern. Check out the trailer above. Kino Gstaad is showing the film on April 12 and 13 2011.

Looking for some action this coming weekend? Here are some possibilities: all weekend the Curling Swiss Championships are taking place at the Sportzentrum in Gstaad (see picture below); Friday February 25 2011 sees Snow Night Gstaad at 19h30 at the Gstaad skischool area (see video of last year's event above); on Saturday February 26 2011 we have the 25 heures freeride Dominique Perret on the Wispile from 11h00 to 17h00 (due to the snow conditions it's not actually 25 hours this year, but who's counting); and Sunday February 27 2011 we can offer up the wooden sledge race in Saanenmöser at 12h30 from the middle station of the Saanersloch gondola (see picture bottom).

Photo: Raphael Faux / www.gstaadphotography.com

Interview by Tess Larosse

Gstaad ”off-season” … grim weather … a pile of end-of-year bills, I need to escape, what’s a city lass to do…? No need to think twice as I hot-footed it off to Zurich to interview Kirsty for GstaadLife, backstage at the Simply Red concert for whom she opened up the legendary band’s show at the Hallenstadion to a great crowd, and a very warm reaction. If anything perks one up into making an effort with clothes, then it’s meeting the very glamorous but down to earth singer Kirsty. I shed my old dog-ridden jeans, dug out my straightening tongs, and donned a sheer black shirt - voila, ready to rock and roll! I caught up with a delighted Kirsty in her dressing room fresh after the concert, and asked her how it all felt, especially as this was her biggest show to-date in Switzerland, and at one of the largest venues in the country.

Miranda Lambert is one of the rising stars in the country scene and this weekend she is playing here at the Country Night Gstaad. It is definitely hard to top last year's supreme performance of Kenny Rogers but with Miranda Lambert, Patty Loveless, and Craig Morgan the organziser, Marcel Bach, has been able to get the some of the best young country performers around today. Don't miss the parade down the Gstaad Promenade on Sunday at 11h00.

Top, the male winners of the 11th Swatch FIVB World Tour 1to1 energy Grand Slam in Gstaad; winners Tod Rogers and Phil Dalhausser from the US (center in blue) won in the final against Germans Eric Klemperer and David Koreng (left in yellow). In the women's final Brazilians Larissa and Juliana, perrenial Gstaad favorites, triumphed. Here are some more snapshots from the tournament which is set to continue until at least 2012. And click below for a video interview (in German) with tournament director Ruedi Kunz, as well as scenes from the tournament.