ESC SWISS WIEN TOUR - Whoosh goes West for pre-PARTY

The Eurovision Song Contest heads south, from Sweden to Switzerland, after Nemo became the first non-binary winner (yay!). We will make a pre-party, postmodern comedy tour of the ways Switzerland has influenced Vienna, bringing together the Swiss community, Whoosh fans interested in a new perspective on their home town diversity, and of course kitsch music lovers. And we have a special guest, to bring insider knowledge, and some of the original language, Romansch.

So what is Swiss Wien? From Carl Jung's dialogue with Sigmund Freud, to expensive watches, insurance & many Gemeindebauten named to honour the social democratic help Swiss cities offered Wien after the wars (THANK YOU!), some restaurants serving Rösti & Fondue, holey cheese, fine chocolate, controversial Nespresso, Euro football in 2008 as a moment of Transalpine unity, the Habsburgs in exile after 1918 (and Schweizerhof in Hofburg), diplomat Carla del Ponte, Pipilotti Rist's three ceilings for Sofitel on Donaukanal, Schweizergarten, both Wien and Geneva being United Nations host cities, NZZ's attempt to penetrate the complicated Austrian media market, and the beautiful Red Cross - created by Henri Dunant after witnessing the slaughter of Austrians and Italians at Solferino.

As lovers of pan-European identity, we celebrate all these Euro moments, like the football Champions League (music by Handel via Brit Tony Britten), Eurovision broadcasting (music by Charpentier), and of course the original European harmony anthem, from Beethoven.

With this tour, we want to update that sense of European harmony through music. We need more cross-border dialogue and understanding, whether it is sport, music or media.

People often make fun of Switzerland - we will explore why that is. And this being a Whoosh tour, we bring our usual mix of politics and ridiculousness. The (cool) Swiss music will be loud, across our pilgrimage.

Later on, we get together to watch the Eurovision on a big screen, live from Basel.