Once upon a time, long long ago in the nineteen-fifties, there were beautiful Fourth of July parties in the Parc des Eaux-Vives, with its view on Lac Léman and real hamburgers and hotdogs served with the obligatory ketchup and mustard and relish. There were a few games, a merry-go-round or two, a lottery and people (maybe 200) gathered to celebrate the independence day of the United States of America. Fanny Jones, Geneva's very own American singer sang the Star Spangled Banner.
It all culminated in the most spectacular fireworks display ever seen in Geneva.
American Gorgeous. Thank you Uncle Sam.
Kids ran around--my little brother Peter was Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone in raccoon hat complete with hanging tail (a bit hot for the season, but he suffered for fashion)---and were allowed as much food as they wanted plus second ice-creams, candies, games and a couple of lottery tickets.
Roseanne won a huge box of packaged life-savers in all colors--the colors of joy, the colors of freedom...Jayashree won two porcelain poodles with lottery ticket no. 334. I had no. 333 and won a bottle of dry sherry which I had to fob off on my parents. For the next year I was kicking myself: by buying my ticket first, I'd forfeited the poodles.
Fast forward some years: the celebration is growing, and the organizers have to move it to the Bout-du-Monde. Bigger and Bigger.
By 2000 it is HUGE--there are McDonalds stands (HUGE) and other well-known concessions (HUGE) making their CHFs and $$$$, and a HUGE milling and muddled crowd. People can hardly move. There is a crush of humanity grabbing for places in line and stepping onto people who are trying to maintain sovereignty over two square feet of dusty ground.
In 2003 the American International Club (AIC) reported more than 30,000 spectators had attended in 2002 'to make Geneva American for a day'.
2006 --- well into the Age of Terror of Terror --- post-9/11, post-Iraq invasion, post-Afghanistan invasion, post-Big Man on the Continent US celebrity, and the Fourth of July feels like....well..... the end of the world.
I'm keeping Heidi company. She's there as part of the American International Club (she was one of the international elements, being pure Swiss) in a booth with a microphone to announce events or fires or lost children. There are some performances in the Stade which I don't attend as I'm there to help out Heidi, plus some other events. There's a visiting American high-school band, and possibly Kirby Bivans playing country music, but somehow the festivities are more muted, tentative even.
Then, after an uninterrupted run of many decades, the biggest Fourth of July outside the USA is discontinued. Is no more. Out with a bang. Out with several bangs if you count the fireworks.
The Big American Bash of the Year is dead.
Since then small picnics have been organized. Democrats Abroad held one in the Parc des Bastions in 2010, and this year the AIC is 'organizing a picnic, site to be confirmed ....American style BBQ Celebration'. Low-key announcement, venue to be revealed to the registered (and vetted?) few. http://www.amclub.ch/
What will it take to resurrect the old festival? Does anyone want to? Does anyone have the heart to?
An era has ended.
