Retrospect concert tour 2017 - Conclusion
Text: Gabriel Müller, Fotos: Aurel Salzer
Our last full day in Cracow began with a trip to the famous salt mines of Wiliczka. After the competitions and church concerts and long nights in the city, the faces started to look a little tired. According to the festival organizer, the plan was to give a small concert during a guided tour of the salt mines. So we stumbled through the corridors of the mine and listened to the guide telling stories about every new hall and every level. His german was excellent, and the jokes were not practiced at all. The concert that was planned did not take place in the end or only in a very short form, because the other visitors of the mine seemed more interested in the actual mine than in the singing guys in strange clothes. Even though there was much to learn from the tour, we were all relieved to see daylight again.
Our day continued in the afternoon with the prize ceremony of the festival, which we went to without too many expecations. After a short opening piece by one of the children’s choirs, the event got directly down to business: Representatives of all the choirs were asked to come on stage and the diplomas were handed out, one category after the other. When the speaker got to the category male choirs, we were already positively surprised when we got first place. We were also very happy with the second place in the category sacred music. But when, at the very end of the ceremony, we watched the head of the jury give the Grand Prix for the best choir of the festival to our two representatives, we were overjoyed. Despite having had good competition performances, we never would have expected such a result!
After that, saying goodbye to Cracow was already on the program. Everyone had dinner together and everyone went to the same distinctively polish karaoke bar. On Monday: Check-out, train station, train, airport, plane, airport, train station, train and before you know it, we were back in our own beds with tired heads and hoarse voices.
East-middle Europe welcomed us very nicely all in all. The first half of the concert tour was full of impressions of a number of different places and by the train journeys between them, from the night-train Strassbourg-Poznan to the tiny slow train in the hinterland of Wroclaw. After this, it was nice to have a few days to get to know Cracow in our spare time around tht competitions. We’re already looking forward to get just a little further east next year and visit Ukraine!
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung durch:
Schüller -Stiftung
Abteilung Kultur Basel Stadt
Pro Helvetia
Derungs Stiftung
Mit finanzieller Unterstützung durch die FONDATION SUISA
