Oh dear. That was almost land under in Kestenholz. That it would rain, I was prepared for. But I hadn’t experienced such a storm in a long time – if ever at all? Luckily there was a huge tent at St. Peter at sunset festival, where we could seek shelter.
From 5 to 9 July 2017 the St. Peter at sunset music festival takes place in Kestenholz. Next to a “schlager” evening with DJ Ötzi, Vanessa Mai and others, international stars as Zucchero and Chris de Burgh did perform at various days. Besides many Swiss bands were playing. On this Saturday The Souls, Bastian Baker and Bligg were performing. Seen from our homes the whole festival is lies quite out in the sticks. But even the satnav was quite misleading us, we found the festival area in the end.
Stormy first visit at St. Peter at sunset
Such a mega storm probably none was expecting. I sure didn’t imagine my first visit at the festival like this. I brought a rain coat with me, but I was glad the festival had rain covers ready. Though, they didn’t really get wet. The only thing to do, was to barricade us into the big food tent. It’s where the security “banned” us quickly, as soon as they realized that the storm might come stronger than believed. The small party tent at the entrances or the various shelters on the area, just weren’t save enough.
For a long time it wasn’t sure, whether the concerts could take place at all. Luckily the weather calmed down shortly before the programme started. Differently to other parts in the country, we were obviously very lucky in Kestenholz and there wasn’t too much damage. Though it obviously was close to.
I liked the festival area
I had imagined St. Peter at sunset in Kestenholz to be similar to Live at sunset in Zurich. Because of the setting of the visitor places. The area was divided in two parts: On the one side there was the food area, on the other side the stage area. In the one part of the big festival tent there were tables and benches, on the other side a more elegant and solid VIP area. There were also various food and drink stands, tables under huge parasols, sponsoring lounges as well as the merchandise tent outside. There was a small chapel on the festival area. It was really idyllic.
In the stage area there were 1-2 additional drink stands. In front of the stage til up to the stands it was seated. Differently than at the Zurich openair there were barriers around the seats with a pit in front of it. The stage area was smaller than I believed from the area plan on the ticket site. The standing area was also less bad than expected. You could see well to the stage. With this setting I liked the festival a lot more than expected, the atmosphere as well.
The concerts took place
With a 45mins delay The Souls kicked off the evening. Many seats were still empty, the present audience quite reluctant. But even after this storm the atmosphere seemed relaxed. Luckily the techniques had survived the storm. Except of a micro that had to be replaced, everything seemed t work.
The Souls played the usual set, just a little shorter cos of the schedule. During “Live” they got the audience to warm up their vocal cords. Obviously quite a few had heard “Close My Eyes” before. At the end the visitors even stood up for “Run Baby Run” and kept clapping along. Even it maybe didn’t really seem like during the concert, you only could guess from the applause if they liked it, the people seemed to have enjoyed the performance quietly.
“Finally I’ve seen them live!” and “They are awesome” were some of the compliments I’ve heard about the band. Or even “They kinda remind me of U2!”. The merch stand was well visited.
According to The Souls (“none seemes to be here yet and “they didn’t do any soundcheck yet”) as well as his own post in the instagram story Bastian Baker seemed to be super late. The bad weather sure didn’t make the jam situation any better. But he didn’t have to hurry anyway. The weather was totally crazy in Kestenholz, when he posted it.
When the concert started then and indeed there were only Bastian and Simon (keys), I was very disappointed for a moment. I was looking forward to the band. Besides I wanted to convince someone by the Bastian Baker band, who only knew Bastian solo so far. Sure, there might be various reasons, why they only performed as a duo. It still was a “Yes, but why…?” moment.
Of course we were happy to listen to and see them. With his jokes and charm Bastian knew how to entertain the audience. He even made a guy sing along, umm bawl, with him all alone during “Leaving tomorrow”. One of our highlights of the performance was sure “Tomorrow May Not Be Better”. The duo version is just so incredibly beautiful and gets us goosebumps each time. They also played my favourite “Tattoo on my brain”. This one I’ve heard also in the duo version for the first time back then. Besides “79 Clinton Street” and of course his first hit “Lucky” were on the setlist as well. They finished their show with “I’d sing for you”.
Some didn’t really understand why he hadn’t played his actual single “Five Fingers”. The set sadly also was very short and the setlist not the greatest. Though there probably wasn’t a much longer performance scheduled. A fan said though: “If he would have talked less, they could have fitted more songs in”. Well, some talk not enough, others too much. It’s sure difficult to find the right middle way. It wasn’t bad, but we all agreed that we had seen better Bastian Baker concerts. And my disappointed still lasted to the end.
The last concert of the evening was played by Bligg and his band. It was his only concert this year. He’s having a break at the moment. But for St. Peter at sunset he interrupted it. Proudly he announced that his little son Lio was seeing him live on for the first time on this evening. And he loved to keep mentioning the little one.
Because it was the only concert of the year, he played a “best of set”, that included next to songs like “Manhatten”, “MundArt”, “Music i de Schwiz”, “La sie redä” or “Nur en Söldner”, of course also “Rosalie”. He immediately got the audience onto their feet. I had hoped for this to happen, but hadn’t exactly believed in it. Swiss and seats – you know how it is.
The show was quite wild. Only every now and then it was a little more quite, like when they sat on stools and sang “Drachetöter” for Bligg’s son. People were swinging lighters and mobile phones. The audience turned into a sea of lights.
It was a typical Bligg concert like I’ve seen them before. During the 90mins mainly known Bligg songs were played (ok, he has many of them) and so it wasn’t exactly anything very special. It was a good solid show, he was thrilling the most of the festival visitors with.
My highlight at St. Peter at sunset
At the end of the day The Souls were definitively my favourites though: musically, vocally, the whole concert. They were and are just top in this. I had expected that I would put them on the same level as Bastian Baker and couldn’t decide. But that didn’t happen.
The day in general was super, even with the mega storm. The St. Peter at sunset ist a lovely oepnair festival with a great, not too big festival area. It seemed well organised with a friendly and helpful crew. Alltogether it was a nice atmosphere.
The festival only takes place every 2 years, so the next time obviously in 2019. Infos about the festival you get on www.sunsetevents.ch
Infos about the bands you can find here:
www.thesouls.ch
www.bastianbaker.com
www.bligg.ch
Videos you can watch in my Youtube playlist: St. Peter at sunset Kestenholz
