When Erik Julliard and a group of friends started their own drumming corps they weren't expecting it to last 25 years. Or to become a much-loved feature of festivals around the world. They certainly weren't expecting it to bring them to New Zealand to perform with the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
It was all meant to be a bit of fun, a way of injecting youthful spirit into a drum tradition that has been strong in Basel, Switzerland since the Middle Ages. Each year the city celebrates Basler Fasnacht, a three-day festival in which people wear costumes and masks and the city's 3000 active drummers take to the streets, marching and performing sombre military-style routines with political themes..... Read more
