Fete des Vignerons

The Confrerie des Vignerons has inspected the vineyards of the Lavaux and Chablais for centuries and rewarded the best work, and the crowning of those winegrowers became a festival - held not annually but roughly four or five times a century, at intervals of about twenty years, so most people see it two or three times in a lifetime. For each edition a temporary arena is built on the market square at Vevey, seating some twenty thousand, a new score and staging are commissioned, and thousands of local volunteers perform; afterwards the arena is taken down completely. The 2019 edition seated around twenty thousand. UNESCO inscribed it on the intangible heritage list in 2016. The gap between editions has varied from 14 to 28 years.

History

The festival grew from the processions of Vevey's winegrowers' brotherhood, once called the Abbaye de l'Agriculture, whose archives first record a parade in 1651. Around 1770 the brotherhood began rewarding the best vineyard workers, it has organised the festival since 1797, and the interval between editions has ranged from 14 to 28 years; UNESCO listed it in 2016 (Wikipedia, Fête des Vignerons).

The main sights

• An arena built and then demolished - a temporary structure for each edition.
• A festival once a generation - roughly twenty-year intervals, not annual.
• Thousands of local volunteers - the cast drawn from the region.
• UNESCO intangible listing - inscribed in 2016.

When to go

Only in a festival year. The last was 2019; the gap before the next has ranged from 14 to 28 years.

Practical notes

This is the catch: there is nothing to attend in an ordinary year. Between editions the Confrerie's museum in Vevey is the only way to see the material. Tickets for an edition sell out far ahead.

Nearby

Vevey and the Lavaux terraces are around; Montreux is along the shore.

Key facts