Caprices Festival 2015: When a Bass Melts the Snow

I had pretty much some quietness when it comes to party feeling and my love for electronic music, another reason for me to forget my post travelling depression and head to the Swiss Alps and attend the Caprices Festival in Crans-Montana.

Caprices belongs to the legendary events when it comes to music here in Switzerland: it has reached its 11th edition already, and it combines finely bands and live DJs. This festival collected a proud list of headliners in the past few years, including names like Paolo Nutini, Deep Purple, Erykah Badu, Amy Macdonald, Carl Cox, Stromae or Martin Solveig.

Photo: caprices.ch

The big surprise of this year's event was a line up filled with mostly electronic acts, despite the opening night that had urban and soulful acts like Swiss Rapper Stress or Ayo. I headed up on Friday afternoon, to fully enjoy the basses pumping in the different locations, especially the ones in the main hall Le Moon and some midday intros at Bar7. As you can assume already, the festival is held in different location, and not really in walking distance from each other. We had our problems by getting the shuttles, but overall came around pretty well and enjoyed some sweet spots in town.

Caprices is divided into 4 locations, all different from each other: and I can assure you, every of these places will leave you some great memories.

MDRNTY

MDRNTY was a total sold out, like most of the time. Held where there's still snow in spring and the sporty, winter charme is still palpable, it has always the finest acts playing during daytime from 12 to 7. If you'll ever plan to get here and have an unforgettable dance in a transparent tent, then be quick by buying your tickets! The line up this year was to die for (Luciano, Ricardo Villlalobos, Art Department, Apollonia, Christian Burkhardt, Sven Väth), and I don't think you'll ever experience another place while you enjoy the best deep house tunes by looking at a breathtaking panorama. This is the sky high point of the festival, and the view is unbeatable, isn't it?

MDRNTY - Photo: caprices.ch

Bar7

Bar7 offers a free first class DJing line up for those who are waiting to get up the hill for MDRNTY, for those who can't get enough after, and maybe for the ones who didn't get the chance to grab a ticket. This place is conveniently located at MDRNTY's feet.  Artists like Chic Miniature, Magda and Gianni Callipari offered the finest tunes to start the day, where you can enjoy a typical cheese fondue or simply try one of the fine wines. Shows start at 12 until midnight.

Espace Valais

More quiet, family friendly, and for cuisine lovers, the Espace Valais sets on local bands during daytime since last year. A good spot located quite in the middle of town, perfect to esplore this wonderful place and all the charme it has to offer.

Fondue!

Le Moon

Le Moon is the bigger, louder version of daytime MDRNTY, and I was looking so forward to this! I had the honour to enjoy amazing visuals, while listening to great artists like Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Solomun, Digitalism and Dubfire, who had the most aesthethic stage of all, in my opinion. The guests were all laid back and enjoying a great party, the venue also offered some spots hosted by H&M Switzerland where everybody could try their DJ skills, get some professional photographs or simply have a spectacular view from the lounge over the stage.

Le Moon, Entrance - Photo: caprices.ch

Kollektiv Turmstrasse

Digitalism

Dubfire

Practical Infos

Getting here: Crans-Montana is located around 3 hours away by train from Zurich Main Station. Purchasing your ticket online can have its benefits because of some great deals from time to time. You can book your tickets here.

Where to sleep: because everything happened quite spontaneous, and the over-planner in me was almost crying, we had to book two different hotels, due the total sell out of part of the festival. I would reccomend the Hotel Le Mont-Paisible locationwise: it's on walking distance from Bar7/MDRNTY and not far away from Le Moon.

The Festival: Try to keep an eye on the ticket releases, especially if you wanna enjoy more venues! You'll find all the information on the Caprices Website.

Where to eat: When you might have enough of festival food, you might should try the restaurant Panorama, which was also my second hotel. Located in Mollens, a small village near Crans-Montana, the restaurant offers amazing views, great service and delicious food.

A special thank you to the Caprices Festival for having me, and to my friend Paulo for his photo/videographic assistance