Unspunnenfest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unspunnenfest is a festival held in the town of Interlaken, Switzerland, near the old ruin of Unspunnen Castle, in the Bernese Alps, approximately once every ten years. The festival highlights traditional Swiss culture and features competitions of Steinstossen (stone throwing), Schwingen (wrestling) and yodeling.

The history of the festival dates back to the 13th century, in the meadows of Unspunnen Castle, with efforts to defuse tensions between city and rural denizens, as well as government and citizens.

The first official festival was held in 1805 in a similar effort: The people of the Bernese Oberland had formed a separate canton in the Helvetic Republic, leading the Mayor of Bern, Niklaus Friedrich von Mülinen and Interlaken's chief magistrate, Franz Ludwig Thormann (and others) to organize this festival in an effort to bring both sides together. It was, unfortunately, not very successful in that regard. Culturally and financially, however, the first two festivals were a great success. The Swiss Heritage Society and the Swiss Traditional Costume Association owe their origins to the Unspunnen Festival.

However, it wasn't until 1946 that the festival, then known as the Swiss Traditional Costume and Cowherd's Festival, was held at regular intervals. After 1946, the Unspunnen Festival was staged at regular intervals: 1955, 1968, 1981 and 1993.

The latest Unspunnenfest was held in September 2006. It was originally to have been held one year earlier, but excessive flooding caused the postponement of the festival. Additionally, the Unspunnenstein (the 167-lb / 80 kg stone that is the festival's centerpiece and the object of the stone-throwing competition) was stolen by Swiss-French separatists from the canton of Jura. The same separatist group had previously stolen the stone in 1984 (it was not recovered until 2000). The organizers had been planning to use a replica for the competition.^[1]