Two upcoming country concerts with Birdtalker and Kevin Welch

: Published: 07 September 2026

We spoke to Roger from ACMGS - Association de Country Music Genève Suisse, a nonprofit organization founded in 1990 following the first Grand-Saconnex Country Music Festival. Its goal is to promote country music in our region. Roger explained two upcoming country concerts and we learned that he has been organizing these for decades! He answered a few questions and is offering an unbeatable price for dinner and concert.

Why did you start? What has been the inspiration?
When I was young, I loved listening to good ol' rock'n'roll, rockabilly and country music. I often went to the Swiss German part of the country to attend country music festivals. In addition to the concerts, I also observed how these concerts were being organized, and took the opportunity to make some contacts.

We also made some trips to the US in the ’80s and ‘90s to attend concerts and to make some contacts there... we even met Crystal Gayle and her husband three or four times... and Kenny Rodgers, just to name a few.

Due to lack of concerts around Geneva, in the late 80’, I thought I should start organizing one. Thus the first country music festival took place in 1990 in Grand-Saconnex, organized with a neighbor who also enjoyed my idea.

The first edition was quite a success and the second one, in 1992, was, as well. So for the third year, we decided to move to the festival to Palexpo to be better prepared for bad weather conditions and also in case of an electricity shortage at the tent location.

Right after the first festival, in September 1990, we decided to create the ACMGS (Association de Country Music Grand-Saconnex, now Association de Country Music Genève Suisse to keep the same acronym).

In 1992 after moving the festival to Palexpo, we decided to call the event the (Geneva) Country Jamboree and we ran it until 1996. Due to a lack of sponsorship, we had to give up the organization of that bigger event, despite it attracting up to 1500+ people per day to the concerts.