Song or Idle Running? Critical Look at the Hunting Horn Festival in Liestal

With primitive and unfamiliar sounds, the 32nd Federal and International Hunting Horn Festival is set to be celebrated on May 30, 2026 in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in the city of Liestal.

The title sounds like world culture – in reality, we can expect a provincial gathering of hobby hunters attempting to imitate culture with archaic fanfares.

The 31st festival already took place in Weinfelden in 2023, with around 300 horn players from Switzerland and abroad. It was characterized by presentations, competitions and stale festival atmosphere. An event of dustiness and provincial backward orientation.

Game meat, which many authorities warn against, is a filler with very low frequency, and this is exactly how the music of hobby hunters comes across. Hunting horn music, which restricts itself to archaic sound sequences with narrow tonal range, seemed like an acoustic relic. Game specialties as culinary accompaniment reinforced the impression of backward orientation. Here they blow their horns until even the last bit of compassion is suffocated. Nature speaks through wind, water and birdsong, not through the war music of hobby hunters or with rifle and bang.

For Liestal in 2026, hardly any official details are available so far – only the scheduling has been confirmed. However, transparency is still lacking (as of today, August 25, 2025):

• Who will perform? Which groups from inland or even abroad have been invited?
• What format is planned? Classic competitions with ranking announcements? Or rather open presentations, as in Weinfelden?
• What about innovation? Will it remain unhealthy game specialties and cardboard signs, or will sustainable gastronomy be offered?

One expects from a festival called «international» at least some small sign beyond national borders.

Local character or provincialism? Infrastructure & visibility

The municipality of Liestal is proud of its historic old town and central location. The entire population of the city of Liestal must endure the whole racket of the hunting horn players. Provincial noise instead of modern culture. A spectacle that was backward in the 19th century and appears merely absurd in 2026.

Such events are hoped to recruit new members for the sectarian and violence-prone hunting associations. Churches are increasingly withdrawing from Hubertus masses – they have understood that hunting pathos and animal cruelty have no spiritual depth. For hunting romanticism glorifies violence against animals.

The suspicion arises that organizationally much still remains in the dark – especially regarding visitor information.

Modern cultural events increasingly advertise ecological and social responsibility. How does the hunting horn festival in Liestal measure up?

• Are there climate-friendly arrival and departure options?
• Are healthy meatless local products offered regionally and as climate-neutrally as possible?
• Is there dialogue with animal protection or environmental protection initiatives?

Animal protectionists deal with the question and formulate livable ethical guidelines for peaceful coexistence between humans, nature and animals. Animals are «our brothers and sisters», our neighbors. Any use of them – whether for food production, clothing, entertainment or in animal experiments – and any degradation to commodity contradicts a peaceful, preserving and life-respecting attitude.

Such themes often remain outside when it comes to saber and horn fanfares. Instead, a meeting of horn players who assault nature with war music.

As with military signal trumpets, the hunting horn is predominantly variants of the natural trumpet with a very petty tonal range for the war music of hobby hunters.

Even the umbrella organization JagdSchweiz, which a court in Bellinzona recently attested that practically everything cruel, unnecessary and heartless is promoted by hunting associations, has its own melody. In the canton of Basel-Landschaft, it is particularly the animal-torturing driven hunts that radiate negatively among the population, or trap hunting. Because of hobby hunters, wild animals.

suffer. The hunting horn festival in Liestal – culturally meaningless and misplaced – promises animal-torturing musical moments. There are leading signals like 'rooster at rest, drive loudly, drive silently' etc. and death signals like 'fox dead, deer dead, hare dead, boar dead' etc.

At least on that day, the peace in the forest for the population and wild animals will not be disturbed by the hobby hunters.

The hunting horn festival 2026 in Liestal promises little more than noisy provincial folklore with questionable symbolism.