Interview / Alles Post- MusikFest!

On Saturday 1st June 2024, the second annual Alles Post- MusikFest! will be taking place at Dynamo (Werk 21), Zürich. The line-up has been announced recently and it’s looking to be another eclectic line-up of bands performing this year.

At the end of the article, you will be able to see the line-up, the links to the bands’ websites on Bandcamp, the link to purchase tickets, a playlist curated by the festival and the flyer. 

I recently asked Gerardo Jara, the founder of the festival, some questions about the festival. Here’s what he has to say about the event.

Tell us about yourself and the Alles Post- MusikFest!

I am a human being that enjoys making music and at the same time I appreciate a great band's live performance. I have been living in Zürich for 14 years now and I am the drummer of the band, Jëkoff Sedofski. Since 2015, I have been organizing small events for food (the first taco festival in Switzerland, 2019), culture, as well as concerts with local bands at many different venues across Zurich.

Alles Post- MusikFest! is an independent music festival created and organised by a group of friends. It is first and foremost a festival, the spectators can come to not only enjoy the music but also the atmosphere which we aim to create. Last year’s festival had a laidback feel to it, inside and outside, at the edge of the Limmat River. There were even some bands and spectators swimming in the Limmat before, during and in between performances. It seemed that there was a very friendly community where people met friends and made new ones. We hope to build upon the foundation from last year’s festival, we put the music and the community first, and we look forward to organising future events, such as concerts along with more editions of the festival.

Everyone is welcome to our events, we don’t tolerate discrimination of any kind.

What inspired you to create the Alles Post- MusikFest!?

During my years in Zürich I have noticed the lack of a “rock scene” here,  it is small in comparison to other kinds of music genres like hip-hop or electro that have fan bases in the city which are quite well established. Since I don't like to stay with my arms crossed doing nothing, I saw an opportunity to help create a movement that can support local bands that are in genres that you don't hear on the radio. 

In 2023, my band, Jëkoff Sedofski, released our second album, Non sono un Robot_, and an idea came to me to invite more local bands to join in with our celebration, so I called up some musician friends and we organized the first edition of the what is today called Alles Post- MusikFest! The main idea was to have local bands playing original music from the post-punk, post-rock, post-metal, alternative, experimental genres and all the sub-genres that are not so popular to the mainstream masses. The post- prefix is related to the musicians and bands that either make music in these types of genres or are influenced by them, even if they don’t necessarily fit the label of any of these genres either.

What was your experience with last year’s festival?

I was positively surprised. It seemed that everyone had a great time. Even though we had a few small issues but in the end everything went smoothly. I was able to form a team from loyal friends and helpful volunteers, who I am greatly thankful for, to help with the running of the festival.

How do you choose the bands for the festival?

I listen to a lot of music - well known and unknown artists. I made a list with around 70 bands from Switzerland and together with Simone, who is in charge of the booking, we listened to all of them. Afterwards, we preselected several bands until we narrowed it down to 10 and sent an email to them to ask if they would like to play at our event. In the end, five bands out of 70 on the list will play at this year's edition.

What can we expect from this year’s festival?

This year's festival you will have the chance to listen to five very talented Swiss bands that are no stranger to the local scene, the kind of music that they play can suit a large array of tastes from atmospheric post-rock to energy-driven post-punk. All the bands have their own style, some more aggressive, some more measured. We tried to make the line-up as diverse as possible to avoid any monotony and so that the spectators will be taken on a rollercoaster ride filled with different emotions.

What do you think of the music scene in Switzerland?

There are a lot of creative and exciting bands across the whole of the country. However, a lot of the talent unfortunately goes unnoticed. We hope that with the festival, along with Reverb Dream, that we will be able to unite and develop the scene together.

Any other words for our readers?

Support local musicians and events! It is also worth checking out concerts and festivals in other regions. This is the only way you can be sure that new talents can be discovered, listened to and to be seen. I hope to see many of your readers at the event and have the opportunity to discover  bands from Switzerland at Alles Post- MusikFest!!

Whether you’re as spectator or a musician, this is also a great chance to connect and be a part of our growing community who share the same or similar tastes in music. Together, we will be able to help promote the diverse underground rock music scene, not only in Zurich but in the whole country.

Tickets: Eventfrog

Details on the Dynamo website (German)

Line-up (with links) / flyer below: 

Car Crash Weather (Zürich) / Official website / Bandcamp

Anger MGMT (Winterthur) / Bandcamp

Zuckerbecker (Zürich) / Bandcamp

Winter in Deutschland (Monthey) / Bandcamp

Taranja Wu (Zürich) / Bandcamp

(Editor’s note: I was in attendance last year at the festival - as a spectator and as a volunteer - and I will be there again this year in the same capacity. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and discovering new bands at the event, and I am certain it will be another great evening.)