The theatre festival at St. Andre

One thing I love about summer in Europe is there are so many cultural festivals, week long celebrations of different arts. And although it is possible to enjoy one during a vacation trip away, there are so many local ones it is not necessary to leave home. Some are major productions bringing in large amounts of money while others are locally produced. I’ve never been to one that wasn’t fun.

In Switzerland there is the famous Montreux Jazz http://www.montreuxjazz.com/index_en.aspx festival. I will never forget my first festival listening to African music with my buddy Robbert until the middle of the night.

There is the less well know Avenches http://www.avenches.ch/ota/page.php?id=45&lang=eng opera festival. This is the first time in seven years that I will miss sitting in a Roman amphitheatre watching the birds swoop into their nighttime nests and then listening to the music under the stars. The only reason is that I have seen the opera that they are showing this year and it is not one of my favorites. Avenches was the Roman capital in Helvetica.

Then there is Paleo in Nyon nearby to Geneva. Nyon is also where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor fought their way through their marriage. Paleo is more pop and international music. Two years ago Llara, Marina and I went to celebrate my birthday, wandering through different tents listening to different types of music, buying a meal from the many stands and eating on the grass. Being with both these people and having music too, what could be a better way to celebrate a birthday?

Last night I went to the Theatre Festival at St. Andre. There are two plays a night with a chance to eat a good French meal in between. The stage was outside. It is run by Argelés neighbors. He is a lighting engineer for the Royal French Academy. His brother teaches theatre arts. They bring amateur theatre groups from the region together. Last night’s group came from Narbonne.

Different characters recited letters to their children, parents, lovers, grandchildren. An official talked through bureaucraticeese so identifiable by the audience that the laughter had to have been heard in the next village. A grandfather wrote to his daughter in the hospital where she was recovering from accident. In sixty-five letters all the disparate elements came together.
In Avenches Florian and I always run into people we know, but in St. Andre it was more intimate and more like sitting in a local café, an interesting combination of a very professional performance with the intimacy of village life.

There are far more festivals than I can attend, but at least one a summer is as traditional as turkey at Thanksgiving or eggs at Easter something to be savoured for its specialness