Burning Mountain sets the Grisons ablaze!

What about 96 hours of love, peace, and creativity? And what if we were to pack those 96 hours into a four-day electronic arts and music festival held in Switzerland from 28 June to 1 July? I have just two words to say to you: Burning Mountain.

The concept has travelled quite a way! Still bearing the scorch marks from the Burning Man in Nevada’s Black Rock in the country of good ole Uncle Sam, the idea is once again being taken up in the easternmost tip of Switzerland in the canton of Grisons. In a bid to be different, the community has put out a call to all jugglers, artists, flame-throwers or any creative types willing to be part of a diverse smorgasbord of talents tinged with a touch of tribal hippie magnetism.

For its third year running, Burning Mountain is donning its alternative festival cap and drawing the crowds to one of the highest valleys in Europe, l’Engadine. Nestled at an altitude of 1800 metres, this fertile ground for creativity and fusion will throb to the syncopated vibes of electronic, psychedelic and progressive music in a stunning mountain setting.

Convention has been cast to the winds. Visitors flock to embrace a physical, sensorial experience. The purpose is to give free rein to individual creative expression within the official moral code of a festival framework built around seven precepts. This festival offers us a lesson about life. We enter the venue; we break away from our consumer-ridden habits to commune with nature. Dance is the binding element. Its ethics, its community approach endeavours to take us on a spiritual journey.

Ace Ventura, Aerospace and Aqualize are just some of the 80 or so DJs who will be arriving from Israel, Mexico and South Africa representing all four corners of the globe packed into one of the most staggering valleys in the country. Robert of Impact Vision has arrived hot-foot from French-speaking Switzerland to rig out the stages. Golden guests also include the Italian Brigada De Fuega de Circo Nera and the Fire Brigade, ready to put on a spectacular show with an acrobatic flame-throwing display.

Tickets are being enthusiastically snapped up by the crowds, the last remaining few are disappearing at the rate of knots!

• Burning Mountain: Electronic Arts & Music Festival, 28 June – 1 July 2012
• Contacts: Web site, Facebook, Twitter

Raquel Monteiro, lifestyle blogger for coolbrands

This post is also available in: French, German