How to protect your kids’ eardrums from Guggenmusik

Martin Rupf

15.2.2023

Translation: Veronica Bielawski

Fat Thursday marks the start of Fasnacht, or Carnival, in many places. And you can’t have Fasnacht without loud Guggenmusik – Carnival marching bands. But it can prove a bit much for adults and especially children’s sensitive ears need to be protected.

Hate Carnival, or Fasnacht, as it’s called in Switzerland? Then you can skip this article. Instead, I recommend checking out this text I wrote a year ago.

Merrily, I swayed to and fro with the crowd into the wee hours of the morning. Not only the concert was monstrous, but also my hangover the next day. Maybe that’s why my enthusiasm for Fasnacht waned in the following years ...

Making earplugs out of napkins

Since having children, Fasnacht has gained a little more importance again. In recent years, I’ve indeed gone out to join a carnival parade. After my kids had fought their way through the crowd to the front row, I started to get nervous. First, the drummers were getting dangerously close to the kid’s heads with their sticks. Second, the noise produced by Guggenmusik is comparable to a Formula 1 racing car just before the race starts.

In a pinch, I made little earplugs out of napkins and stuffed them into my kids’ ears.

Of course, proper hearing protection would be better. More and more often, you see children and tots wearing hearing protection at Fasnacht. Thanks to their standard bright colours, they fit perfectly into the hustle and bustle.

Needless to say, proper hearing protection is all the more important if your kids want to play in a Guggenmusik band themselves.

Is Guggenmusik really music or just organised noise?

But the topic of hearing protection should also be of interest to parents who are forced to attend the Fasnacht procession because of their children. Hey, you can use earplugs to shield yourself from the worst, too.

But according to Näf, this year’s Fasnacht kick-off really showed that Guggenmusik is seen by many people for what it is – music. «After a two-year break because of Covid, there were more people than we’d seen in a long time,» says Stefan Näf. «We always go for catchy tunes that spread party vibes,» he adds.

Will this year’s Fasnacht put me in a party mood? That remains to be seen. To my great relief, however, Fasnacht hasn’t been a huge topic with my kids so far. With any luck, it’ll stay that way until the carnival’s over.

Martin Rupf

Senior Editor

martin.rupf@digitecgalaxus.ch

Half-Danish dad of two and third child of the family, mushroom picker, angler, dedicated public viewer and world champion of putting my foot in it.

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