Summerstage Festival: More than 9000 visitors to the countryside park
A phenomenal line-up with some of the world's top performers made the seventh Summerstage Festival a massive success. International and national stars drew over 9000 visitors to the countryside park in Basel.
The festival opened on Thursday with the biggest shooting star of the Swiss music scene, Veronica Fusaro. The singer-songwriter captivated the audience on the meadow in the Grün 80 with soft as well as rock tunes. The Beauty of Gemina, the already legendary dark wave band and its mastermind Michael Sele, then came onto the stage. As headliner on the first day, Mike Rosenberg, also known as Passenger, sang to the hearts of many visitors. From the very first note he put the audience under a spell with his songs and with his pleasant and winning manner. The highlight was his song "Let her go". The associated YouTube video has been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.
The second evening opened with the six-piece folk band from Olten, Memory of an Elephant. Groovy beats animated the festival site for the first time that day. The following band, OTTO NORMAL, captured the stage and the groove continued. German rap, with freestyle inserts, made the audience jump around. The final performance saw the Söhne Mannheims in their original line-up. They played for more than two hours, and along with the audience, sang Happy Birthday to You to a band member. A great evening came to an end and the audience, tired and overjoyed, returned home.
The Saturday of this year's festival belonged to the Swiss acts. It started with the Zurich band Baba Shrimps, who were followed by Nemo, who subsequently shared their rap-style and virtuoso lyrics with their already numerous fans. Basel local heroes Lovebugs then took to the stage and did not allow the audience to relax with their alternative pop music. The first co-headliner PEGASUS knew how to captivate with their stomping beats and great performance. The headliner of the evening was Lo&Leduc, which made the barrel overflow. The crowd could not take any more as songs such as "Jung Verdammt" and new hits were played. Their performance closed the Summerstage Basel Festival of 2017.
Basler woman receives 3sat prize
Basler Gianna Molinari can celebrate after winning the 3sat prize thanks to her text "Loses Mappe". Another Basler, Zoë Jenny, had previously won the Bachmann Prize in 1997.
Native Basler Gianna Molinari has won the fourth 3sat-Prize for her text Loses Mappe, which tells the story of a night watchman who saw and tripped over a plane passenger who was frozen to death and did not want to admit that it was a human being. The essay has been lauded as "an empathic essay about seeing and looking".
Austrian Ferdinand Schmalz had, without much surprise, won the Bachmann Prize. His story "Mein Lieblingstier heisst Winter" was lauded as "borne of a grand horror story".
The second and third prizes were expected to go to the Austrian-American author John Wray and the German Eckhart Nickel. The public gave their vote to the Austrian Karin Peschka, who had opened the competition on Thursday.
Bern author Urs Mannhart added a second Swiss candidate, next to Ms Molinari, to the shortlist. Zurich author Daniel Goetsch was not in the top seven as the prize winners were announced.
More building work at Elisabethenstrasse: renovations made in the second phase
From today until November the civil engineering services will renew the BVB and IWB routes, pavements, tram lines and underground cables under Elisabethenstrasse in Basel. The Bankverein tram stop at Elisabethenstrasse will be made more accessible. This will lead to certain restrictions in the coming months.
In the first stage, the underground cables will be renewed. During the building of underground electric tracks at Bankverein, there will be a temporary restriction to traffic turning into Elisabethenstrasse.
The pedestrian crossing at Bankverein, in the direction of the Elisabethenkirche, will be closed off. The pavements in Elisabethenstrasse will be narrower in places. Bikes and cars will be able to travel in both directions along Elisabethenstrasse. Cyclists are advised to bypass the construction site via Kirschgartenquartier.
The building project at Aeschengraben and Elisabethenstrasse will coincide. The closure of Aeschengraben in the direction of the Bahnhof SBB, which was put in place due to the ongoing work at Aeschengrabens, will be lifted.
Diversions for cars and trams in August
In August and September, Elisabethenstrasse will only be passable in the direction of Wettsteinplatz for eight weeks. This applies to cars and bikes. Trams will also travel in only one direction and will be diverted in other direction. From 29 September until 22 October, the section between Basel SBB to Bankverein via Kirschgarten will be closed to trams. Car and bicycles will also be diverted for four more weeks.
Within the framework of the two-phased project, the redesign of Elisabethenstrasse will mean that passengers will be able to board trams at the Bankverein stop directly from the pavement. The tram island which currently exists, will be removed. Shelters will be built at the tram stops in the direction of the Wettsteinbrücke. During the second phase, the Canton of Basel-Stadt will introduce a new traffic system. Elisabethenstrasse will be closed to cars travelling in the direction of Wettsteinbrücke. As a result, the trams can travel uninterrupted and the pavements can be widened.
Robbery at Bahnhof SBB results in injuries
A woman was injured during a robbery at the Centralbahnplatz outside the Bahnhof SBB on Saturday night.
According to latest information from the criminal police of the prosecution, the woman was sitting on a bench near the entrance to the train station at around 9.30pm when she was approached from behind by a man who stole a bag from around her neck. As she turned around, the attacker punched her hard, injuring her back. He then fled in an unknown direction. The woman was left shaken by the incident. She then went to the police station, where officers took her to the emergency department of the hospital for a check up. A search for the attacker was unsuccessful.
Wanted:
Unknown man, aged between 25-30 years old, around 180cm tall, dark skinned, with a scar on the side of his face and short and curly black hair which was tied strikingly backwards. He spoke French. At the time of the incident he was wearing tracksuit pants, a blue t-shirt, and dark coloured trainers.
Anyone with any information regarding this incident is asked to contact the criminal police of the prosecution under the phone number 061 267 71 11 or go to the nearest police station.