The Federal Wrestling and Alpine Games Festival, or “Schwingfest”, takes place in Switzerland every three years. This year, around 300,000 grapple fans travelled to Estavayer-le-Lac in canton Fribourg over three boiling days.
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Gaby Ochsenbein worked at Swiss Radio International and later at SWI swissinfo.ch from 1986 to 2018. She lives in Bern.
The event requires massive behind-the-scenes work, and in addition to Swiss wrestling – in which burly Swiss try to throw opponents onto their backs using each other’s shorts – there is no shortage of opportunities for sponsors or food and drink vendors.
In addition to wrestling, the crowd, which includes ladies and gentleman of all ages in traditional dress, was entertained by flag-swinging and stone-tossing.
This year’s festival took place on probably the hottest weekend of the year. It was therefore unsurprising that a range of colourful headgear was donned – and copious amounts of beer downed.
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Now in its 44th edition, the Federal Wrestling and Alpine Games Festival, or ‘Schwingfest’ has been going since the end of the 19th century, and attracts spectators from at home and abroad. With around 250,000 people expected over three days it’s the country’s biggest sporting event, but what’s the draw? The Federal Wrestling Festival has…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.