In just over a month's time, we'll be back for the 10th edition of Afterseason in Villars-sur-Ollon. It's an electro festival that has grown in stature over the years.

As with any project, you need an idea and at least one person ‘crazy’ enough to want to make it happen.

In this portrait, I introduce you to one of the founders of the Afterseason, Paul Bavaud, as well as some of the festival's history.

Who is Paul Bavaud in a few words?

A multi-entrepreneur!

At the age of 17, he launched his first business in the south of France with his brother Alfred, the melon kings, selling fruit at the local markets.

Back in Switzerland, he studied engineering at the EPFL.

Today, he manages three complementary companies from Villars:

- I Carré, his civil engineering firm

- Cerise immobilier with one of his brothers

- Part of archisol, an architecture company founded by his father.

In addition to his various activities and his role as a family man, he is one of the founders of Afterseason. A festival that has become a must for lovers of good nights out.

How does he manage it all? His engineering skills enable him to optimise, stay focused on objectives and get straight to the point. He's not always in top form, but he knows how to lead his teams and projects efficiently.

For him, the most important thing is to enjoy his day-to-day work.

In fact, he has a phrase that sums up his state of mind perfectly: ‘Place all your happiness in the moment’!
Aware that in order to realise his various projects, he has had to surround himself with the right people, learn to trust and build on his strengths.

Acknowledging that he lives in a part of the world where we have everything, he puts everyday ‘problems’ into perspective and finds ways to turn them into opportunities.

Above all, Paul is a festive person, a lover of life, of those precious moments we share with family and friends. So what could be better than getting together to celebrate with thousands of festival-goers? It's an activity that takes up a lot of his time and earns him little (in terms of money), but it's something he feels strongly about. Because that's what entrepreneurship is all about: doing crazy things that do good for more than just yourself.

What's the story behind the festival?

March 2013, the ski season has just ended. Paul is drinking a beer on a sunny terrace with a few friends he's brought down from Lausanne for the weekend.

There's not a cat in sight, the resort is empty and there's no programme planned for the evening. Villars has changed a lot, with no more queues outside nightclubs or Sunday traffic jams to get back down to the plain. Even chalet owners prefer to rent in other resorts.

‘What if we did something to change that? What if we figured out how to get Villars moving?’

After a few more beers and an impromptu brainstorming session, an idea was put forward: to create a small electro festival on this terrace in a year's time to celebrate the end of the season. Vincent, who was there that day, is a DJ and knows the electro world inside out. He will be in charge of programming and communication. Paul will be in charge of logistics and finance. So how do you go about making this project a reality? Pretty handy when you've got an engineer on the team.

Here we are, already at the first edition in March 2014, 350 people and the event takes place over one day from 12pm to 10pm. The atmosphere is family-friendly and relaxed. The music is accessible even for the less knowledgeable.

10 years on, the festival has grown to 5,000 people over the weekend and has retained its family feel. Children are welcome on Sundays for the traditional brunch.

The Afterseason several times a year!

They've gone from one event a year to three:

- A Winter

- A Summer

- A ZirkuZ

The aim is always the same: to bring festival-goers together to have a relaxed time and dance to some great music. Whether you're on the ski slopes, on the shores of Lake Geneva or immersed in a magical show.

What's it all about?

As we all know, events of this scale are rarely profitable on their own. That's why the festival needs sponsors and lots of volunteers to make it all happen. But we also need the people behind the project who, after 10 years, are still here, still committed.

So if you want to support these exceptional events in your own way, you can become an official sponsor and benefit from exclusive publicity.

It will also be possible to become an individual patron thanks to the future opening of the association of friends of the festival. They'll be talking about that when the time comes.

In the meantime, see you in Villars from 21 to 24 March!

All the details here: https://afterseason.ch/winter-edition-2024

I can't wait to be there.

Source: www.eb-vision.ch

About Cerise Immobilier gérance et courtage, real estate agency in Villars-sur-Ollon

Cerise Immobilier gérance et courtage is a real estate agency located in Villars-sur-Ollon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It offers services in sales, purchases, rentals, PPE management, property valuations and tax and legal advice. We cover the Chablais region of Vaud, in particular the communes of Ollon, Gryon, Bex, Aigle, Les Diablerêts, Chessel, Leysin, Lavey, Noville, Roche, Yvorne and Villeuneuve.

Would you like to sell your property (chalet flat, land or building)? You can get a free initial valuation by clicking on the following link: Online valuation