The International Radio Festival (IRF) debuted in Zurich in 2010, and was held in a former high-security paper storage warehouse used by the Swiss exchequer and post office. Located on the top floor, supported by 2 meters of industrial revolution concrete, where once precious materials. were housed, the IRF itself marked its own revolution in radio, by reaching over 50 million listeners worldwide in its very first edition... and from then on there was no stopping us stopping radio anchors and their stations from flooding us with requests to take part in future editions of the IRF!
Our journey continued to a romantic castle overlooking the city Zurich, then to the Olympics in London, post-EXPO celebrations in Milan, and finally to Valletta, Malta, the European Capital of Culture. At each IRF festival and conference, we did our utmost to curate the best music radio formats from around the globe keeping true to our credo to "Listen to how the world sounds", showcasing amazing anchors and their producers, while engaging in an incredible cultural exchange with our host country's own musical talent, traditions and alot more, truly confirming the IRF as the United Nations of music radio.
The following video shorts offer a reminder of past IRF editions and our ambitions for many more in the future. Watch this space!
And we have plenty of pictures too, in which case go here!
IRF Editions.
2010 Zürich Edition
Leading up to the IRF 2012 London Olympics edition, we converted a vintage Swiss postal bus into a fully fledged radio studio and as the official Olympic audio torch of Switzerland took the IRF on tour across the country, visiting Bern, Basel, Chur, Locarno, Montreux and Zurich, where we set up shop to bring local musical talent on-air and selecting artists to join us on our Olympic experience.
2012 Swiss Radio Tour
Leading up to the IRF 2012 London Olympics edition, we converted a vintage Swiss postal bus into a fully fledged radio studio and as the official Olympic acoustic flame of Switzerland took the IRF on tour across the country, visiting Bern, Basel, Chur, Locarno, Montreux and Zurich, where we set up shop to bring local musical talent on-air and selecting artists to join us on our Olympic experience.
2012 London Olympics Edition
The 3rd edition of International Radio Festival took us to the glorious 2012 London Olympics as guest of the Swiss Federal Government's House of Switzerland located on the banks of the river Thames by London Bridge, where we set up a special Pop-Up Edition in a vintage Swiss postal bus presenting listeners with a taste of the very best of Swiss and British radio.
2012 Zürich Edition
For the 4th Edition and right after our Olympic edition, of the IRF we moved to the magical Schloss Sihlberg over looking the city of Zürich from where between 12-16 September in 2012 we welcomed over 28 radio stations from all four continents offering all those who attended and tuned in another rare chance to “Listen to how the World Sounds”.
2013 Zürich Edition
The 5th edition of the IRF in 2013 took us to our new home the former print works of the Swiss exchequer and post office where we showcased even more amazing radio shows and their curators from around the world. Located at the splendid Schloss Sihlberg, the IRF surpassed itself once again, and for the first time featured three radio shows from North Africa.
2014 Zürich Edition
In 2014 the IRF 6th edition was fully taken over by its founder Darryl von Däniken who moved the festival to Zurich’s infamous Kaufleuten with the help of its original founder Fredi Müller. Under its new direction the festival also collaborated with the SwissRadioDay and presented a comprehensive conference programme attracting over 450 radio industry professionals.
2015 Zürich Edition
The IRF’s seventh edition took place at the festival hotel FourPoints by Sheraton in Zurich’s Sihlcity, welcoming over 80 international radio guests whose on-air shows reached over 100+mil listeners around the world, and close to 500 radio professionals attended the IRF & SwissRadioDay conference.
2016 Milan Edition
The IRF’s eight edition took place in Milan, Italy, welcoming over 12’000 visitors from the general public over the four-day festival period and engaging close to 500 radio professionals who attended the IRF conference whilst showcasing 80 international radio guests whose on-air shows reached over 100+mil listeners around the world.
2018 Malta Edition
2018 saw the 9th edition of the International Radio Festival (IRF) taking place in Malta’s capital city Valletta, and European Capital of Culture 2018, and remains the world’s first and only Audio Conference and On-Air Festival, showcasing and debating the business and curation of music radio content, broadcasting across all four continents.
IRF18 Malta audience reach stats.
IRF Trailer
This short IRF trailer offers a sweeping insight to the opinions of some of our esteemed radio guests, sharing their joy and inspiration that the festival brought them, and why they loved listening to how the world sounded during their participation. If you are a radio station who wants to participate at a future IRF, then make yourself known here!
2010 Zürich Edition
This is where it all started, where the world's first, and still only, International Radio Festival was born to do one thing and one thing only, namely to celebrate the heartbeat of music radio, namely the anchor and the producer. We built a radio studio in the Papiersaal, the former high security paper storage of the Swiss exchequer and post office and invited over 20 radio stations from around the world to come and broadcast live from Zürich back to their home audiences... and the rest is history!
IRF Listen to how the world sounds
This is a trailer we produced in the early days to communicate the IRF slogan "Listen to how the world sounds". Since then we produced on a haphazard basis various trailers which we will upload as we develop this new website. If you are a budding film maker and fancy producing your own interpretation of the IRF slogan, then feel free to let your creativity loose and get in touch here with your finished master piece.