Tonight, the Westside Friday Night Special was all about this year’s Stars Of Sounds Festival, which will take place in Aarberg in mid-June and in Murten in July. In addition to the two Swiss bands James Gruntz and Halunke many other great bands and musicians will perform. A little taste was now given in the middle of the Bern shopping center – including competitions and autograph sessions.

James Gruntz makes little fan hearts dance

Let’s be honest: The star of the evening was not James Gruntz or Halunke, who each got us into the mood for the Stars Of Sounds Festival this year with a showcase. It was actually the little blonde boy, maybe 2 years old, who stood in the middle of the room, later almost on stage, and really celebrated the music of the two acts. Carefree and full of enthusiasm, with big shining eyes, he danced to himself, grinning over both ears.

Unlike with full band on the stage at the Stars Of Sounds Aarberg – alongside James Arthur and Passenger, James Gruntz was on his own today. Besides the keyboards he had a few special gadgets for more sounds with him. But actually this way the songs sound the most original and how they were made, he explained.

So James Gruntz presented with a lot of feeling and great groove next to “You” and his hit “Heart Keeps Dancing”, also the newest single “Too much to say” from the current album “Waves”. We have been missing “Speechless” a little, but he will definitely not leave it out at Stars of Sounds.

Halunke with star guest

After a short break, we continued with Halunke. On this evening a little reduced without horn section and with some other, partly new musicians than usually. Until the end of summer they were in total 20 musicians who will be on stage with Halunke. Yes, vacations or other plans and appointments sometimes make it difficult to bring so many people together. By the way, Elias, who is performing with his band “Hot Like Sushi” at the Music Days Steffisburg, was a guitar player. I’m looking forward to that.

While only the little boy was standing in front of the stage for “Superheld”, frontman Häni soon brought the audience closer and let them go along to “Schiffbruch” and “Level 7”. Even the famous, notorious “Zurich rapper” whom Häni keeps inviting, had come for “Boulevard”. Um, who has seen Halunke, of course, knows: Häni turns the hat quickly, pulls the pants to his knees (well, almost … he fortunately was wearing a long T-shirt ;)) and showed his rap skills. In the end Halunke asked themselves where’s summer?. But hey, it’s definitely not far off.

Vorgängig verriet übrigens der Frontmann in einem kurzen Interview sogar noch: Am Stars Of Sounds wird ein Stargast mit dabei sein. Wer das sein wird, verriet er natürlich nicht. Aber wen ihn kenne, habe vielleicht schon eine Ahnung 😉

By the way, the frontman revealed in a short interview ahead: At Stars Of Sounds, a star guest will be there. Of course, he will not reveal who that will be. But who knows him, maybe already got a clue 😉

Stars Of Sounds programme 2018

In addition to this star guest, many more national and international stars will appear at this year’s Stars Of Sounds in Aarberg as well as in Murten.

The Stars Of Sounds festival summer in Aarberg will open with an energetic Swiss evening: Halunke will heat up next to Hecht and the Alpentainer Trauffer . James Gruntz will share the stage with James Arthur and the wonderful Passenger on the second evening.

Three weeks later, it continues at the beautiful Lake Murten with three evenings. On the first evening, the famous Kelly Family stops on their comeback tour in Murten and is supported by Eliane as well as San Joes. On Friday, the Swiss bands Shadox and Pedestrians will support the Finnish superstars Sunrise Avenue and the German DJ All Colors.

On the third evening, next to the Swiss musician Nickless and the rapper Bligg, the UK singer / songwriter George Ezra performs with his great, deep voice and the beautiful current album “Staying at Tamara’s”. The Jamaican Raggea group Inner Circle and the German DJ Robin Schulz are also there.

Here is the programme again in the overview:

Aarberg

Friday, 15 June 2018	Saturday, 16 June 2018
Hecht Trauffer Halunke	James Gruntz Passenger James Arthur DJ ZsuZsu

Murten

Thursday, 05 July 2018	Friday, 06 July 2018	Saturday, 07 July 2018
San Joes Eliane The Kelly Family	Shadox Pedestrians Sunrise Avenue Alle Farben	Nickless Innere Circle George Ezra Bligg Robin Schulz

If you were lucky, you could win tickets at Westside on the slot machine for individual evenings. But even VIP tickets were given away. For all others there are tickets at Ticketcorner, for Aarberg HERE and for Murten HERE.

Information about the festival, artists and more programme details can be found on www.starsofsounds.ch