St Gallen is a Swiss town close to Lake Constance, near the border with Germany and Austria. It’s also very close to a little known ‘principality’ called Lichtenstein. As luck would have it, I’d arranged a trip with a friend to the German town of Konstanz on the shores of the lake. What I didn’t realise at the time was that First Aid Kit were booked to play a Summer music festival in St Gallen and that this coincided with our trip. A quick bit of research told me that St Gallen was only a 35-minute train journey from where we were staying. This was too good an opportunity to miss, and before long I’d spent a whole load of money I could ill afford on a couple of one-day tickets for the festival!
When the day finally arrived, we got off the train at St Gallen equipped with t-shirts, sunhats and suncream. It was going to be a very hot day! We hadn’t bothered to bring any food with us so ended up paying a small fortune for lunch in the town centre – Switzerland is incredibly expensive! As we weren’t really interested in seeing all the bands, we spent the early afternoon wandering around the old part of town. It turned out that St Gallen was well worth a visit on its own merit, regardless of the festival!
Although tempted to linger, we knew it was time to catch the bus to the festival site which was situated a couple of miles out of town. Being squashed in like sardines on the journey reminded me I was getting too old for this kind of thing, but just before we all suffocated, the driver came to a halt and let us out.
The idyllic setting of river, woods and hills was spoilt only by a large industrial plant nearby. As we passed through the festival entrance we realised this was a very popular event. We slowly shuffled our way through the crowd to find the ‘tent stage’ where First Aid Kit was scheduled to play. It seems the main stage was reserved for the headline act, a well known American band called ‘The Killers’. With a band of that name playing, it seemed appropriate that First Aid Kit were around!
When we eventually found the tent stage, a Swiss rap band called ‘Lo and Leduc’ were playing. They sounded very ‘hip’ but their music wasn’t particularly memorable. An enthusiastic crowd was spilling out well beyond the confines of the tent so we were beginning to wonder if we’d ever get inside. However, as the band left the stage, the tent began to empty to the point where only about half a dozen people were left! It turned out the previous band was extremely popular in Switzerland and they’d even won several awards!
As First Aid Kit’s slot approached we expected the tent to start filling up, but soon concluded that most Swiss people had never heard of First Aid Kit! All this was good for us, of course, as we were able to take up a position very close to the the stage. As we looked back towards the mixing desk we could see a bearded guy who I’m pretty sure was Klara and Johanna’s father. He’d been a rock star himself in Sweden back in the eighties.
By now you could feel a sense of excitement among the handful of devoted fans at the front of the stage. For me, the event had some extra significance as it was the first time I’d ever seen First Aid Kit play live! Just then, I noticed several TV cameras had taken up positions around the stage. If no-one else was interested, at least Swiss television thought this was worth broadcasting!
With minutes to go before the start of the show, some more people arrived. The sound of a pulsating heart rang out to announce First Aid Kit’s entrance, by which time a few hundred revellers had made their way into the tent. First Aid Kit hit the stage (or, at least, casually walked onto it), dressed in bright pink outfits. They opened with ‘Rebel Heart’ followed by ‘It’s a Shame’, before pausing to introduce themselves in perfect American English (even though they’re Swedish, of course!). The audience seemed quite subdued at first, but by ‘Stay Gold’, quite a few of them were clapping along. ‘Wolf’ and ‘Fireworks’ seemed to go down well but by ‘Emmylou’ many were leaving to go and watch the main band who were now due onstage.
As First Aid Kit returned for their encore, the enthusiasm of the remaining audience seemed to make up for those who’d left, and by ‘My Silver Lining’ many were clapping along. Perhaps this is what it felt like being at an Abba concert before they became famous!
Before we left the festival we tried to get a view of The Killers on the main stage, but they were mere dots in the distance. The huge crowd made it impossible to get a good view. Perhaps one day it would be First Aid Kit up there, and I’d fondly remember when I’d casually strolled up to the front of the stage to watch them – judging from the popularity of their current tour, this could well turn out to be the case!