Zurich Festival - Zuri Fascht

We have arrived in Zurich at the same time as their triennial festivities - the Zuri Fascht. Unknown to us, we have found out today that over 2 million Swiss people and tourists will descend upon the city from the 1-3 July. The festival includes entertainment, international food stalls and a big fireworks display starting at 10.30pm, just after dusk.

On our travels throughout the inner city today, we saw the transformation happening with performance spaces and food stalls being erected, flanking the Limmat River and in the public squares. It was hard to capture the beauty of the riverside and bridges because of the mobile vans. Apparently, it all starts at 5pm this afternoon, so we are in for a very noisy night.

We began our walk down the Bahnhofstrasse, the main shopping street of Zurich. It was fairly quiet in the morning but very crowded by lunchtime with hoards of people streaming in from Zurich HB, the main train station.

A shop on the Bahnhofstrasse with a large animation of people walking down the street.

We walked over to the riverside to an area called the Schipfe, where artisan shops in medieval buildings are located along the river front.

Crossing the Limmat River to the 'old town' you can find medieval buildings and cobblestone streets that wind their way across undulating hills.