‘Security here, freedom there’ – insights from a US trucker festival in Switzerland

The allure of the United States is palpable at Europe’s largest trucker and country festival, held in Interlaken, central Switzerland. But even as visitors revel in the romance of Route 66 and the Wild West, they remain clear-eyed about the country without health insurance and pension schemes. The Trucker & Country Festival in Interlaken is the largest such gathering in Europe with more than 45,000 attending last month. It doesn’t feel like Europe: the festival grounds are filled with monster trucks, cowboy hats and a mechanical rodeo bull in an airplane hangar; people are devouring corn dogs and the dancing Wild West Girls and Boys resemble characters straight out of the Lucky Luke comics. But the presenter speaks German with an Austrian accent and explains to the crowd how European emigrants brought their traditional dances to the US. The Wild West Girls and Boys are not shy to dance to the children’s tune “Old MacDonald had a Farm”. The festival sometimes seems like an American ...