Swiss Review 3/2021

Swiss Review / June 2021 / No.3 22 Report plans for any event to take place. All fans would hear would be the same sweet sound of nothing that they had already had to endure for a year. Despite this being a phantom event, 35,000 people were happy to shell out up to 100 Swiss francs each for a ticket, relying on the simple un- derstanding that none of this money would stay in the festival coffers. In- stead, it would go straight to themany musicians and crew who would nor- mally light up Switzerland’s festival scene. The ‘admission fee’ was sym- bolic, leaving fans to imagine and yearn for what might have been. Empty diaries But what did the acts think of it? Mez- zo-soprano, songwriter and composer Stephanie Szanto was one of the 300. For Szanto the Ghost Festival was un- doubtedly a strange episode. But then so were the preceding twelve months – a period that has left her completely out of work. She is a freelance artist who loves to play at various live ven- ues. The pandemic is her worst-case scenario come true. “It was a catastro- phe,” she says. One that hit her hard froma personal, artistic and financial perspective. With her diary empty and no engagements in sight, Szanto now has nothing to sustain her. She says she has been plunged into an “un- inspiring, mind-numbing void”. Money issues are all that are left for her to ponder. “Howdo I paymy rent?” The detailed paperwork involved in applying for compensation for loss of earnings now keeps her glued to the computer. “It leaves me with zero en- ergy or creativity.” No more rocking Bernese folk-rock combo Kummerbu- ben was another one of the 300 non-performing acts. The band has played at many well-known real-life festivals. But the boys have spent the past year more or less in limbo, says Urs Gilgen (guitar, banjo, mandolin). Some acts claim that the enforced break has spurred them on. Not in their case. “We are a group of ladswho live off the adrenaline. We need a rea- son to play. What is the point of re- hearsing when there is nothing to re- hearse for?” They have no wish to makemusic off the back of a pandemic either. “That would be completely un- necessary.” They feel like their record is stuck in an infinite loop. Gigs have been put back to later and later dates – a depressing state of affairs. “There comes a point when you wonder whether choosing an alternative date makes sense at all.” Dark at the end of the tunnel It has been a year of postponements, delays, and weary hope. Meanwhile, time passes. Stephanie Szanto no longer only talks about her lost year, but lost years – in the plural. The en- tire artistic sector has been affected terribly, she says.With public funding for culture drying up, no one knows whether venues, concert promoters, or (non-fictitious) festivals will ever Stephan Eicher was one of the headline acts at the Ghost Festival. His perfor- mance was com- pletely unplugged in every respect. Photo: Keystone Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Szanto was one of the 300 non-performing acts. Photo provided