15. 11. 2012 Goodbye AVO SESSION Basel – Welcome BALOISE SESSION
Concerts featuring Rod Stewart and Anna Aaron rang out a successful AVO SESSION Basel festival, leaving us with unforgettable memories of twelve highly diverse concert evenings. This year’s temporary move to the Musical Theater Basel marks a change in the festival name and the end of the festival’s partnership with presenting sponsor AVO Cigars. Starting in 2013, the festival will be called BALOISE SESSION.
International artists like Dionne Warwick, Katie Melua, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, Antonello Venditti and many more have provided the AVO SESSION Basel with a superb ending to its 15-year partnership with the Oettinger Davidoff Group. Some of this year’s highlights were concerts with singer-songwriter Milow, new discovery Imany, sound magician Gotye and Latin superstar Juanes, who raised the roof of the Musical Theater Basel. Shock rocker Alice Cooper and worldwide star Rod Stewart were also major highlights. Swiss bands like Plüsch, Stefanie Heinzmann, Dieter Meier and his band «Out of Chaos» took audiences by storm and captured their hearts.
This stylistically highly varied programme attracted approximately 17,500 visitors this year. This corresponds to 96% capacity.
Once again in 2012, two artists were presented AVO SESSION Basel Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Hall of Fame icon Dionne Warwick. Herbie Hancock received the Musician’s Musician Award.
In 2013, the music event will take place for the first time with Basler Insurance as presenting sponsor and will be called BALOISE SESSION. The festival will take place from 25 October to 14 November 2013 in the new Event Hall of the Basel Fair.
All concert evenings will be recorded by Swiss Radio and TV and will be broadcasted in up to 140 countries on 5 continents. All concerts will also be shown on SF 1 and SF 2, 3sat and starting at the end of this year, some concerts will also be broadcasted on Arte.
The festival management is very pleased with this year’s edition: «With Rod Stewart performing at both of the closing concerts, this was a worthy final edition of the AVO SESSION Basel. The high quality of music is both an honour and a challenge for the next edition of the festival», says Matthias Müller, president and founder of the festival. Beatrice Stirnimann, CEO, adds: «We would like to thank all of the visitors who have remained loyal to us at the Musical Theater Basel and we are looking forward to 2013, when the festival will take place with the accustomed candlelit tables.»
