Echoing the performance YULE, whose title refers to the ancient winter solstice celebrations of the Germanic and Nordic worlds, Lea Hagmann offers a short introduction to Montol, the winter solstice festival that has been revived and reinvented in Cornwall. Blending Celtic and Anglo-Saxon customs, this contemporary celebration invites us to reflect on how traditions are transmitted, reshaped, and transformed into spaces of collective creativity.

An ethnomusicologist at the University of Bern, Lea Hagmann researches musical and dance revivals and the ways in which traditional music and dance are revived, reimagined, and mobilised in the construction of contemporary identities. Much of her work has taken her to Cornwall, at the heart of the Celtic world. This research resulted in her book Celtic Music and Dance in Cornwall: Cornu-Copia, published by Routledge in 2021. She also studies Swiss traditional and popular music, with a particular focus on yodelling and folk practices. In addition, she is a filmmaker—co-author and co-director of the documentary Beyond Tradition—and a journalist and radio producer for SRF 2 Kultur.