For the first time in three years, Lucerne has hosted its legendary carnival without any major COVID regulations. Attendance at Luzerner Fasnacht on Thursday and Monday reached 45.000 and 60.000 people respectively - an all-time record for the city.
In 2020, Carnival escaped the first COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland by just a few days, but fans weren’t so lucky in 2021 and 2022. In 2021, the event was cancelled completely due to the high risk of infection, and in 2022 the event was still subject to COVID-19 restrictions.
Thankfully, for 2023 things were different. The majority of COVID-19 restrictions were removed in April 2022, meaning that large groups were able to gather across the city and enjoy the festivities without any hindrance.
Switzerland’s largest carnival event will now take place in Basel next week. Basel Fasnacht takes place later than other carnival celebrations and is the only Protestant carnival event in the world. What's more, it was added to the UNESCO list of "intangible cultural heritage" in 2017.
Here's what the festivities in Lucerne looked like: