The Bash: Part I – Ufbruch (“Setting out”)

The first evening of “The Bash” will explore emotions ranging from the euphoria of setting out on new adventures to the melancholy of yearning for home. The Swiss pop musician Marc Sway, his band, the Swiss Orchestra Soloists and an ensemble from the Swiss Youth Choir will together take us on a musical journey from Andermatt to Rio de Janeiro.

ARTISTE ÉTOILE: MARC SWAY

IDEA & CONCEPT: LENA-LISA WÜSTENDÖRFER

MARC SWAY & BAND

SWISS ORCHESTRA SOLOISTS

ENSEMBLE OF THE SWISS YOUTH CHOIR

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

“Es chunnt eso wies chunnt” – what will be, will be, sings the Swiss pop star Marc Sway in Swiss German dialect. He’s a warm-hearted, highly approachable entertainer who is well-loved for his charismatic, soulful voice and for his inimitable ability to unite profundity with a lust for life. His music blends soul, pop and international rhythms and complements all this with influences from Brazilian, African and Swiss music. The result is a characteristic sound full of colour and rhythm, and his melodies accordingly exude an unpretentious beauty almost impossible to resist.

“What will be, will be”, he sings – and you wonder, perhaps, how life’s treating him right now? Well, fortune’s smiling on him and us, for October is bringing him to the Swiss Alps – more specifically, to the Gotthard region, here to Andermatt and its Concert Hall. And just why, exactly, is he coming, you might ask? Well, because of The Bash, of course!

In 2026, Marc Sway is our ‘artiste étoile’, our star artist at The Bash – a two-day festival in Andermatt that knows no boundaries. At this year’s edition, Sway is following in the footsteps of Stephan Eicher and Bligg by venturing into the world of classical music, joining forces with the Swiss Orchestra under the baton of Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer. Together, they’ll be bridging the perceived gap between classical, pop and soul.

The Bash is conceived and designed by Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, and this year its major topics are the yearning for home and the yearning to be far from it – homesickness and wanderlust, setting out and returning again. It will explore on the one hand where our roots are – where home is with its familiar scents, creature comforts, its sense of community and of feeling secure in familiarity; and on the other hand it will investigate the lure of the unfamiliar, the journey into unknown regions and promises of new horizons.

The first evening, 23 October 2026, will be marked by a sense of new beginnings and explore emotions ranging from homesickness to euphoria. Marc Sway, his guitarist Claude Stucki and his percussionist Roberto Hacaturyan will join Sherniyaz Mussakhan and the Swiss Orchestra Soloists on a musical journey from Andermatt to Rio de Janeiro. The line-up will be completed by a guest appearance from the Swiss Youth Choir.

On the second evening, 24 October 2026, Marc Sway will join the full complement of the Swiss Orchestra under the baton of Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer. On their quest for a place to call home they will together celebrate traditions, build musical bridges, pull out all the emotional stops and explore all manner of timbres. Alongside songs by Marc Sway himself – which he’ll be singing with a symphony orchestra for the first-ever time – their programme will feature classical works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonín Dvořák, Heitor Villa-Lobos and others. Also on stage with them will be Roberto Hacaturyan (percussion), Claude Stucki (guitar) and Naomi Ayleen Sway (vocals).

These two concerts will tell stories of letting go and finding your way back again. And, as is customary with The Bash, they’ve been conceived as a Gesamtkunstwerk – a total work of art. All the same, audiences are free to attend either one or both of these two distinct programmes.

The Gotthard region has for centuries been a symbol of connection and transition: a place where North meets South. And it provides a perfect setting for our musical experiments. The Bash is in equal parts party, experimental laboratory and an act of collision that stands for innovation and openness. This festival is an experimental space that offers room for new discoveries. The result isn’t pop music with the addition of just a few string instruments, but the eccentric and exciting sum of altogether different worlds. In October 2026, Marc Sway and Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer will together create a soundscape that will fuse opposites and bring tradition together with modernity in an unusual way. At times forceful, at others melancholic; sometimes rousing and eruptive, sometimes poignant, but always surprisingly new. What awaits you at The Bash? Two inspiring concerts full of surprises and big emotions.