The 9th Artistika 2021, the popular artistry festival from the Valais, has successfully managed to defy the Corona pandemic! This year, the popular live show from Valais was transformed from the originally planned live audience into a high-quality TV production, "Artistika Hope". In this way, all artists, musicians and technicians were able to work COVID safe. As an TV event, the Artistika was also able to reach significantly more viewers while still providing its usual high-class entertainment.

Artistika 2020 was the first festival in Switzerland that was cancelled in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic. Initially, not because it could not be held, but because there were problems getting the international artists and guests into Valais. This occurrence gave birth to the idea of a TV formatted Artistika for the following year as a high-quality replacement for the live audience show, which was once again not possible.

As a theme for the new TV-Artistika came the idea of interweaving Big Band and Jazz music to accompany the international superior acts. For this, Visper show producers Karim Habli & Olivier Imboden did not have to search long nor far. The "Alex Rüedi Big Band" - a permanent fixture in the Jazz scene of the Rhone Valley - enthusiastically agreed to fully supporting the Artistika TV show despite the fact that they had to cancel their own concerts and rehearsals for the past year.

Bandleader Joel Schmidt and pianist and composer Tal Balshai rearranged and rehearsed 15 songs into a new, strong, big band sound for the occasion. All musicians of the band individually practiced for months before rehearsing and playing together for the first time at the performance theater "La Poste" in Visp. At the end of April 2021, after a very intense and enthusiastic recording week, the "Artistika Hope" was ready for broadcast. On Saturday, May 8th, and Sunday, May 9th, the show was broadcasted at 8 p.m. on the Valais TV channel "Canal 9” with great success.

The show can be seen on the internet starting Thursday, 20.5.2021.

A large number of national and international artists supported the project with unusual live acts accompanied by the highly professional Valais "Alex Rüedi Big Band". The originally planned sponsorship by top musician and 25-time Grammy winner Chick Corea (USA), who sadly passed away on February 9 of this year, was changed into a dedication to the unforgettable Jazz pianist. Accepting the tribute on Corea's behalf, his long-time manager Kris Campbell.

Stefanie Heinzmann (VS) was also recruited as a high-profile musician for the show. Other performers in the "Artistika Hope" are: Sam Gruber (VS), Pat Burgener (VS), Stefan Margelisch (VS), Ephraim Salzmann (VS), Philipp Fankhauser (CH), Rolf Stahlhofen (D), Yamil Borges (USA) and Tal Balschai (D).

Thanks to the following of strict hygiene measures as well as daily Corona tests of the entire team, the circus artists were finally allowed to perform. During the show, Nina Burri (BE), contortionist and former Artistika presenter, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Claudius Specht (CH), one of the world's best jugglers, showed his unique performance. And the world-famous clown "Housch ma Housch" from Ukraine brought great joy with his performance.