World Home of Fife and Drum?

Back at the end of June, my fife and drum corps traveled to perform at the International Muster in Basel and the Liestal Tambouren und Pfiferfest, in Switzerland.
There were a few things that amused me about what we found there; Switzerland is the world's primary dwelling of fife and drum, supposedly, and it held the International Muster in Basel. Why would this amuse me?

1. There is a noise restriction in Basel - neither we could fife nor the drummers drum inside the city limits except during the muster.

This led to serious withdrawal on the part of those of us, a fair number, who arrived about a week before the muster. Between corps meetings and drill rehearsal, we did a lot of sightseeing, and yes, we traveled in packs. As I believe I mentioned a long time ago, when fifers get together we don't typically talk, we play. However, deprived of that safety net, we wound up spending a lot of time hanging out and enjoying each others' company. The only thing wonkier than the fact that I spent more than a straight week hanging out in a foreign country with mostly middle-school aged boys is the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed their company and sense of humor, and they appeared to enjoy mine.
   
     2.   They don't play the fife in Switzerland. They play the Swiss piccolo.

Talk about missing out, right? Seriously, though, the Swiss piccolo is a very similar instrument, though it is slightly more complicated and makes a different sound. One day before the muster our director took any of us fifers who wanted to go and we went to a piccolo-making wind instrument store, where he loosed us on any number of piccolos, flutes, recorders and even a bugle. (Now that's a weird instrument.)

One more strange thing about Swiss corps (or "cliques," as they're called)? When they march in parades the drummers march in front.