Swiss National Day Celebration at Home pianist Alain Roche stunned the audience with his ‘vertical piano’ performance, Rahel Senn performed an innovative electronica piano piece at the famous Matterhorn Mountain. The stirring finale saw Marcel Baerenfaller playing the Alphorn in Singapore and Ambassador Fabrice Filliez displaying how raclette is traditionally served.
W
e were not able to gather physically to celebrate the Swiss National Day on 1 August, but it did not prevent us from celebrating as a community.
UNPRECEDENTED ARRANGEMENTS In collaboration with art-management.com and together with the Swiss Chamber of Commerce, the Swiss School in Singapore, the Swiss Association, the Swiss Club and Switzerland Tourism South-East Asia, the Embassy of Switzerland organised a one-hour digital celebration of the Swiss National Day on Facebook on Saturday evening, 1 August. DIVERSE PROGRAMME Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno! It means ‘One for all, all for one’ or in other words, together, we are strong. Referencing this Swiss motto, Ambassador Filliez welcomed the participants in his opening message. Subsequent messages and entertainment were provided by the Swiss pillars, Switzerland Tourism, and Swiss-related institutions such as the Singapore-ETH Centre, the St. Gallen Symposium, hotel management school Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne, the St. Gallen Institute of Management in Asia, as well as the Swiss International Airlines and Swissôtel Merchant Court. We enjoyed musical performances by the talented Swiss Ticino artist Veronica Fusaro, pianist Nico Brina with an amazing backdrop, francophone duo Aliose with their hit song ‘Me passer de toi’ and Sophie de Quay & the Waveguards performing a special in Montreux. After
MULTILINGUAL WEBSITE In addition to our local celebration, the Swiss community and friends of Switzerland all over the world were invited to visit the multilingual interactive website www.missione1agosto.org crafted by Presence Switzerland of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland. Visitors could watch the Swiss President’s National Day speech, find Swiss music, fun facts about Switzerland and DIY activities, such as traditional recipes, yodelling classes, and tutorials on how to make lanterns. SWISS MOVIE SCREENING Finally, in collaboration with The Projector, the Swiss Embassy also screened the film ‘Switzerlanders’ online for free later in the evening. Directed by Swiss director Michael Steiner and inspired by Ridley Scott’s 2010 documentary ‘Life in a day’, it portrayed the amazing diversity of Switzerland and insights from real Swiss people in the summer of 2019. THANK YOU We would like to sincerely thank all participants for joining us at our digital celebration. We are also grateful for the extensive positive feedback from the Swiss community. Many shared that they had watched the live-stream together with friends and family while enjoying food from our Swiss-related food and beverage partners Coucou, Marché Restaurant, Swiss Club, Swissôtel the Stamford, Wine Universe, and Wursthans. A special thank you also goes to our lucky draw supporting partners Helvetia and Sons, Huber’s Butchery, Swissôtel Merchant Court and V-Dining Restaurant. This digital celebration showed us alternative ways to create social ties and solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are extremely grateful to our partners and supporters for making this celebration happen.
Without this strong and unified network of the Swiss pillars, Swiss-related institutions and businesses, and the Swiss community in Singapore, this would not have been possible. In collaboration with Events architect art-management.com Swiss Chamber of Commerce Swiss Club Swiss Association Singapore Swiss School in Singapore Switzerland Tourism Southeast Asia Supported by Coucou Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne EHL Singapore-ETH Centre Helvetia and Sons Huber’s Butchery Marché Restaurant St. Gallen Institute of Management in Asia St. Gallen Symposium Swiss International Airlines Swissôtel Merchant Court Swissôtel The Stamford V-Dining by V-Zug Wine Universe Wursthans RELIVE THE CELEBRATION If you missed the celebration, you can still watch it on our Facebook account under events ‘Swiss National Day at Home Celebration’!
Article and photos courtesy of Embassy of Switzerland in Singapore
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