Swiss powerhouse Gadget abc Entertainment Group AG has been enlisted by the federal government to organise and produce an ‘information and concert series’ to encourage the unvaccinated to get their jabs.

The ‘Back on Tour’ series comprises five open-air concerts, taking place during national vaccination week (8–13 November) in cantons with low vaccination rates.

Swiss artists Dabu, Danitsa, Kunz, Stefanie Heinzmann and Stress, as well as the special guests Anna Rossinelli, Baschi and Sophie Hunger, will perform in Thun, Lausanne, Sion, St. Gallen and Lucerne.

Each concert will admit 500 people, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, who snapped up one of the 2,500 free tickets. Vaccination buses will be parked at each site.

The concerts are subject to the current coronavirus regulationswhich say that outdoor events without a certificate or seat requirement can take place with a maximum of 500 people. The organisers hope such restrictions will help to ‘arouse the audience’s longing for normalcy’.

“[THIS] WILL REMIND US OF HOW WE ALL WENT TO CONCERTS TWO YEARS AGO WITHOUT ANY RESERVATIONS OR LIMITS”

“[The ‘Back on Tour’ concert series] will remind us of how we all went to concerts two years ago without any reservations or limits and enjoyed our social and cultural life without any restrictions,” says Marco Meroni, member of the management team at Rod Kommunikation, the agency that implemented the entire vaccination campaign on behalf of the Federal Office of Public Health.

Oliver Rosa, managing partner and director artists and brands at Gadget, added: “In this varied and challenging project, we were able to benefit from the experience and our network as the largest organiser and leading management agency in Switzerland.”

The company says it was given a lead time of just four weeks to put together the ‘Back on Tour’ concert series.

“The pandemic has been paralysing our industry for almost two years. We want to get involved and show our colours to get out of there as quickly as possible. The informative component of the vaccination week with a wide variety of concerts combining Swiss artists made sense to us,” added Rosa.

Last year, CTS Eventim acquired a majority stake in Gadget, uniting André Béchir’s abc Production with the wepromote consortium of companies.

The wepromote joint venture was formed four years ago by a group of Swiss promoters including Gadget Entertainment, Incognito Productions, wildpony, OpenAir St Gallen, SummerDays Festival, Seaside Festival and wepromote Live.