Here’s the restructured version, event details up top, meaning underneath:

Swiss National Day 🇨🇭 — August 1, 2026

What: Swiss food, live music, games, the Vancouver Swiss Choir, The Silver Stars (local Vancouver band), and the traditional Lampion Parade — hosted jointly by the Swiss Canadian Mountain Range Association and the Swiss Society of Vancouver.

When: Saturday, August 1, 2026

Where: SCMRA Chalet, 4141 Quarry Road, Coquitlam, BC (50–60 min from Vancouver via Hwy 1 E / Exit 44, Mary Hill Bypass, then 2 km on Quarry Road)

Cost: $10 admission (16 & under free) • cash/debit/credit accepted • free overnight camping & RV parking

Tip: Search “Swiss Canadian Mountain Range Association” on Google Maps before you leave — cell service is limited near the Chalet.

🔗 swisscanadianchamber.com/upcoming-events

Why August 1 — and Why It Matters Here

This year marks 735 years since the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291, when the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden signed the Bundesbrief — the pact that began it all. For Swiss abroad, National Day is less a history lesson than an annual homecoming that doesn’t need a plane ticket: the one day a year when a quietly-carried identity — a language, a recipe, a flag in a drawer — becomes visible and communal.

The Lampion Parade is the heart of it. Watching children walk with paper lanterns at dusk is a memory many Swiss expats carry from their own childhoods, now recreated for a new generation growing up in Canada. The choir, the alphorn, the folk band — these aren’t just entertainment, they’re sensory threads back to a place that can otherwise feel abstract to kids born here.

And we’re lucky to have somewhere this fitting to do it. The SCMRA Chalet, tucked into the forest above Coquitlam, is about as close as the Lower Mainland gets to an Alpine setting — mountains, camping under the stars, and a community hall built by Swiss hands. Celebrating August 1 here isn’t a smaller version of the holiday back home; for many in the diaspora, it’s a more deliberate one — nobody has to show up, so showing up is a choice to keep something alive.