There is less than a month to go until one of the biggest events in the Filzmoosian calendar! This year marks the 150th year since the creation of the costume band in Filzmoos, ‘Die Filzmooser Trachtenmusikkapelle’ and to celebrate, there will be 2 days of live music in the centre of the village! Playing locally every Friday evening during the summer in the centre of Filzmoos and touring Europe as well as further a field, during the rest of the year, this very traditional and highly prized asset of the people of Filzmoos is a musical wonder that you really must see for yourself. The costume band is made up from people from all walks of life who all live locally to Filzmoos. Farmers, bar keepers, tour guides, ski instructors, super market workers, hotel cleaners and even the retired all come together for weekly practices in the Gemeinde offices and then play live in front of locals, tourist and seasonal workers each Friday evening at 8.00pm.
Supervised by Kapellmeister Sepp Kirchgasser since 1989 and lead by the innkeeper Gottfried Schörghofer, the Filzmooser Trachtenmusikkapelle have gained worldwide acclaim. Starting their touring by opening the harvest festival in Filzmoos on August 28th the band then travelled to perform in Germany, Belgium and were invited by Vladimir Putin to perform live on Russian television for the 60th anniversary of Leonid Tiagatschef – the Olympic president. They also had the privilege of opening of the UNICEF Gala in Dusseldorf-Hilden. In 2010 they returned to Russia by invitation to the Russian Rostoff on-Don on the Black Sea by the cosmonaut Valeri Tokalev. On 6 December 2012, they were once again invited back to Germany, the groups fifth time at the UNICEF Gala in Dusseldorf, Hilden alongside 16 international stars of opera and concert.
With last summer in Austria being a rather wet one, the band didn’t get to play as much as they would normally do (unfortunately open air concerts and rain don’t mix to well!) but this summer is stepping up to be much fairer and every Friday myself and my guests in Filzmoos will get the pleasure of enjoying a local beverage while listening to this very traditional Austrian costume band and, of course, everyone also has those two special days of celebration in June (19th – 21st ) to look forward to!
Words and image by Jack Collins, Inghams Resort Representative in Filzmoos.
