Sunday 7th September 2008 (9.00-17.30) Folklore – National Costumes, Dances, Crafts.
The Zürcher Trachtentag is taking place in Wädenswil. As Wädenswil is on the main railway line from Zürich to Chur (S2, S8, IR to Chur) and the various stalls are set up and events taking place quite near the station, it is easy to reach by public transport.
The Internet page is in German but most of it should be more or less self-explanatory.
·Trachten are National Costumes; Lieder are songs; Tänze are dances; Kulinarisches = Mmmmmm.
Where is what?
·In the Florhofstrasse, Fabrikstrasse and the Stegstrasse there are stalls showing various traditional crafts. In the Türgasse there are fruit and vegetables and hand-weaving. On the Glärnisch-areal there are crafts connected with the national costumes. In the Florapark are the flax workers, lathe and wood turning.

Altogether it looks as if it should be quite an interesting event for anyone interested in Swiss traditions.

I don’t know if anyone else came to Wädenswil for this event, but I went down for a couple of hours this afternoon. The weather was better than the forecast had been. Lucky me. It seems to be quite an insider event, very little advertising having been done in the town. However, there was plenty for the ‘outsider’ to look at. The complexity of the National Costumes is much greater than I had thought. Watching the ladies doing the delicate hand embroidery on the bodices of the dresses and on the lapels of the men’s jackets is very impressive. The chap making the golden ‘headdresses’ – one can hardly call them hats – with fine gold thread in a lacework pattern – what a task. No wonder the complete dress is worth a small fortune. Outside, the more ‘hardy’ crafts demonstrated were interesting especially the rope-making which I had never seen before.
For the grand Finale, which took place in the triple-sized gymnasium, we saw a hundred dancers, the music provided by a choir of fifty female voices and a steel band. A rather unusual combination which was surprisingly pleasing to both ear and eye.
If anyone sees this event advertised next year (I don’t expect it will be in Wädenswil again), it would be great if they could put it onto the Forum in case anyone else is interested in having a look and a listen for themselves.

Hey Longbyt,

I was there. Thanks for posting it to the board. I loved it. I wanted to buy one of the costumes in the building where they had the woman in the corner doing "sticken" (that braiding they do with the white thread). We had some great lunch - buerli, guggeli and a rot wy from Weinland and got to listen to the music and see the dancing.

Oddly - one of the women who was doing the announcing said they were from Germany

We were in Wadenswil yeserday as well (where I discovered Don Camillo).

Thanks again for the original post.