The history of the International Police Music Festival

In late seventies a huge military festival with international participation was held in Zurich, which included a large procession through Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse and show of the massed bands of all participating musicians in the Münsterhof.
Among the audience were also the former city council and police chief Hans Frick, Head of the publishing house Jean Frey AG, Jürg Müggenburg and the President of the police music Zurich City, Bruno Kistler. Impressed by this big event Mr Frick rose the question why there has never been an international police music meeting in Zurich uptil now. It was a quick decision: Under the leadership of commited members of the police music Zurich City an organizing committee was specially constituted and they prepared the 1st International Police music festival in 1981 in Zurich.
On 1. August 1981 Hans Frick declared the festival open in front of several thousand enthusiastic spectators in the Letzigrund stadium. The première was a great success and it was quickly agreed to carry out more such festivals every two years.

The International Police Music Festival is today, together with Basel and Avenches Military Tattoo Festivales, one of the three largest music formation event of its kind in Switzerland and is a renowned cultural flagship of the city of Zurich.
As an example of the current zeitgeist the festival was not only professionally prepared and carried out as large-scale event of national importance in the last 25 years, but also developed a nice link between the police and the population.

The following top national and international police and military formations have participated in the previous 9 International Police Music Festival: