Fasnacht — the festival that lasts 72 hours

At 04:00 the lights go out in one of the steep streets on Spalenberg. Thousands of hand-painted lanterns are the only source of light. «Achtung. Morgenstreich. Vorwärts. Marsch» (Attention. Morgenstreich. Forward. March), rings out across the city, and the march is played in every street. Jon Klavenæs walks in the vanguard of the Spale Clique carrying a lantern — he is not playing, he is listening, and feels the pulse rise.

It is the unity and the sense of community born of a full year of preparation. Children and adults side by side, from a neighbourhood with one shared goal.

The common denominator is clear: everyone wears a mask, everyone wears a costume. No one is themselves, and for that very reason everyone becomes part of something greater. Around the corner the contrasts line up — a 100-man tamburkorps, a drum corps; a Guggenmusik brass band; tractors carrying masked Waggis who throw confetti like snow.

Many drummers come from the military tambur system, but the tradition lives on just as much in the cliques and in the families. Representatives from the USA, the Netherlands, France and Austria come year after year. A 500-year-old cultural heritage — not locked away in a museum, but alive.