Preparations under way for 15th Waldstock Festival

This year the Waldstock open air festival is taking place for the 15th time at its traditional site in Steinhausen. Volunteers have been working hard helping over the past few days to ensure the stages and bars are ready for the opening on Wednesday evening.
 
Tobias Glauser, 24, the spokesman for the festival, was pleased with how well preparations were going with as many as 50 volunteers doing their best to get two stages, the bistro tent, a wooden tower and three bars ready. One of these, the Cuba Bar, has become something of an institution in recent years.
 
For Lorena Cerletti, 18, from Steinhausen, this is the third time she has helped at the festival. She has been busy painting the walls of the Cuba Bar (assisted by Florence Hartmann (on the left) and Andrea Hartmann, as can be seen in the second photograph), which is to resemble a hangar. "The Waldstock has an atmosphere all of its own," said Cerletti. "It is quite small but you can meet a lot of people."
 
As she carried on applying the paint, another volunteer, Hannes Wettach, was working on another bar, from where a model railway with the name "Waldstock-Sebeliboden Funicular Railway" is to run over to the main stage (Sebeliboden is a nearby clearing a bit higher up in the woodland). The 34-year-old has been helping set up Waldstock for eight years, and he is only too glad to be able to take a break from his computer screen.
 
The canton recently published a new checklist of things to be done for those organising such festivals and these are being implemented at Waldstock. "Actually, these do not mean changing much for us," said Ivo Ackermann, chairman of the organising committee. "We have been working with a checklist for years, but the cantonal guidelines are very useful."
 
As mentioned, the festival starts at 8.30 pm on Wednesday 30 July, actually with a comedy performance by Oropax. On Thursday, the evening gets under way at 5 pm and continues with a number of musical acts and a film at 9.30 pm. As Friday is a public holiday (Swiss National Day), the festival starts as early as 1.30 pm with Christian Ramseier performing in the Cuba Bar, with the last musical performance by Apparatischik not starting until half-past midnight.
 
On the Saturday 2 August a special afternoon for children gets under way at 12 noon. Later on, at 7 pm, there is a poetry slam with Simon Lisbig, followed by more music and the film "Almanya" being shown at 9.30 pm. As on the previous day, the last act, Chef's Special, does not start until half-past midnight.
 
Admission to Wednesday evening costs CHF 15 with day tickets for each of the following three days costing CHF 25 if bought in advance, or CHF 30 on the day. Passes for all three days (i.e. Thursday, Friday and Saturday) cost CHF 70 or CHF 55 if booked in advance.
 
Further information can be found on www.waldstock.ch.