"Sing für Vögel"

On 3 June 2023, Lucerne Festival hosted a special event at Europaplatz: With the sing-along "Sing für Vögel", we aimed to raise awareness of the threatened situation of Switzerland's birds and contribute to improving their habitat – keeping with this year's Festival theme of "Paradise".

Around 300 singers gathered in beautiful weather in front of the KKL Luzern to lend their voices for birdlife. The 21st Century Chorus, Cho(h)renschmaus, the Atenea Quartet, tenor Ziad Nehme and host Beatrice Kern provided a great supporting program.

We were singing for Lucerne’s birdlife: for every participant who joined in, Lucerne Festival pledged to donate CHF 5.- to the hedgerow planting project "Hedges for Red-backed Shrike & Co.", in which BirdLife Lucerne will plant and maintain at least 2'500 meters of new hedges and shrub groups in the Canton of Lucerne over five years as a diverse, species-rich habitat. In the fall of 2023, the Lucerne Festival team will roll up their sleeves for a day to actively help support BirdLife Lucerne by planting hedges.

Through the 300 participants, an amount of CHF 1'500.- was raised, which Lucerne Festival increased tenfold – in the end, festival thus donated the sum of CHF 15'000.-. In addition, BirdLife Lucerne collected further donations in the amount of CHF 304.12 on site.

"This is a very special project that is close to my heart: Together with BirdLife, we can make a difference for the birds in the region", Festival Director Michael Haefliger commented on the event.

The "Sing for the Birds" campaign is just one action within the framework of the sustainability strategy that the Festival has been developing in recent months regarding the areas of social, ecological, and economic sustainability. The goal is to proactively expand this commitment in the coming years.