Idea

BACKGROUND
The idea of a youth choir festival originated in a contest of ideas initiated by the Fond Basel 86 with the theme “Basel — City of Encounters”. This contest was launched by the Christoph Merian Stiftung in 1989.

From 1992 to 2010, the European Youth Choir Festival Basel EJCF took place every three years. The popularity and size of the event led to a change to a two-year-rhythm in 2010. In 2012, the festival celebrated its 20-year anniversary and in 2016, its 10th realisation was honored with a jubilee edition appropriate to the festive occasion. The 2020 festival was postponed by one year due to the coronavirus pandemic. It took place in spring 2021 in a national version with workshops for Swiss children’s and youth choirs. In 2023, the festival was once again held in its original international form. The new EJCF ATELIER programme for Swiss children’s and youth choirs complemented the previous international EJCF FESTIVAL programme. Since then, the EJCF has once again been held every two years, always on the days of Ascension in odd-numbered years.

Today, the festival sees itself as platform for concerts and encounter for highest qualified children’s and youth choirs, taking a leading role in this worldwide. Around 40,000 visitors usually visit the mostly sold out concerts. In addition to this, the festival’s purpose is to bring together people across all borders and to let them discover new horizons together. This applies to the singers as well as the audience and choral professionals from all sectors and scenes.

CENTRAL THEMES
Music
Offering concerts of high musical quality to a wide audience. The festival program shall illustrate the variety of choir music in Europe and Switzerland and address contemporary tendencies in choral singing.

Encounter
Promoting cultural exchange throughout Switzerland as well as between Switzerland and other European countries by means of choral singing, getting to know different music cultures and encounter in everyday life.

Education and sing-animation
Promoting children’s and youth choirs from all regions of Switzerland by providing suitable sing along events and concerts in an international environment of highly qualified children’s and youth choirs. Conveying musical and music-cultural contents related to choir music as well as offering further education for conductors of children’s and youth choirs.  

FINANCING
Around half of the festival is financed by contributions from the Federal Office of Culture, the Basel-Stadt & Basel-Landschaft lottery funds, around 20% from contributions from patrons and sponsors and just under 30% from the proceeds of sales. Voluntary work worth around CHF 350,000 is carried out at the festival.

The Swiss federation’s financial support demonstrates the recognition of the festival as a main cultural event of nation-wide importance.