Basel Youth Culture Festival a Success; American Football Team Seeks Stadium; Open Air Cinema Searches for Sponsor; Police Patrol Pedestrian Zone

News On 8 September 2015

Friday and Saturday night saw Basel play host to the ninth annual Jugendkulturfestival (youth culture festival).  Despite the lack of internationally recognized celebrities or artists in Music, Dance or Theater, the event managed to draw 60,000 guests.  The event hosted 14 stages spread throughout the Inner part of Basel and concluded without incident.  The Festival has grown to become the largest non-commercial platform for youth culture in Switzerland - over 1800 artists participated in 180 different acts, all playing for free.  The festival ended in the early hours of Sunday at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club where an after hours party featuring the Piano virtuoso Mischa Blanos concluded the event.     ********************************

You might be forgiven for thinking that the Basel Gladiators, an American Football team based here had modest ambitions despite their amateur status in the hometown of Switzerland's best soccer team.  However, Coach Dwaine Wood has made it a mission to secure the same professional facilities for training and exhibition games that the team has used since its founding in 2001.  It seems when the St. Jakob stadium underwent renovations and was reopened, the city decided that only 1st league football teams should be allowed to use the facility, essentially shutting out the Gladiators.  Though the team can continue to play and train at the  Rankhof stadium which has a capacity of 7600 attendees, the lack of commitment by the city to assign a permanent venue to the team leaves them unable to focus on training and play.  Says Coach Wood, "The city would prefer it we were playing on a playground somewhere in Riehen, we only get to use a stadium when no other team needs it."  Basel Sports Department director Peter Howald was sympathetic saying the city has long known of the problems faced by the Gladiators, however there simply are not enough venues to commit to supporting the team for an entire season.  Coach Wood certainly has reason to feel frustrated, despite the lack of resources, he's managed to coach his team in the top 10 of European American Football Association games, and believes the team could lead the leaguel with better stadium and training venue.

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Despite the popularity of the OpenAir cinema in Münsterplatz formerly sponsored by Orange (now renamed Salt) might have to call it quits after 24 years of continuous operation.  The promoter Cinerent Openair AG apparently can not make a go of it without a marquee sponsor such as Salt who has decided to end its sponsorship.  Salt, under its previous name Orange had been sponsoring the event for the last 16 years.  Peter Hürlimann, CEO of Cinerent said it would be impossible to continue producing the event without a title sponsor, and are hoping that current negotiations with local sponsors will bear fruit.  Further aggravating the financial situation the promoters find themselves in is that the Swiss-Los Funds, operators of the Swiss Lottery, had been subsidizing the ticket costs of attending a screening, which they have decided to end this year as well.  A petition with 3,000 signatures was submitted to the Basel Petitions Committee to consider public support for the Open Air Cinema event.  The clock is ticking, as the promoter only has until mid October to submit plans to the city for next year's event, complete with sponsors which at the moment aren't certain.  Mr. Hürlimann, despite his optimism, sees the probability of an Open Air Cinema event at 50/50.

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Basler Police are trying to get the word out that inner city roads are now pedestrian traffic only.  Last August, police officers were seen during a period of 10 days pulling over those operating trucks, sedans, vans, passenger cars, taxis, motorcycles, e-bikers and bicyclists.  A total of 722 vehicles were pulled over for inspection of permits and 457 citations resulting in fines were distributed.  It seems that while people are generally aware of the pedestrian-free zone, many don't know the specific rules of when access is legally permissible, nor which type of vehicles are banned.  Police plan to continue with their enforcement and compliance activities and plan a multi-day control for the middle of October.