Lugano spends less on music than the five other cities studied

At 99 francs per head, Lugano spent the least on music in 2024 of the six cities examined by the Musikvielfalt-Initiative.¹ Geneva leads with 375 francs, followed by Zurich with 236, Lausanne with 201, Bern with 179 and Basel with 144, as summarised by the Schweizer Musikzeitung.²

In Lugano, that comes to 6,775,727 francs for 68,507 residents. Of this, 92 per cent goes to classical music and 2.6 per cent to musiques actuelles.¹ Within the classical share, 30.9 per cent of total spending comes from taxes and 61.1 per cent from the lottery fund.¹ In all, 96.1 per cent of the funding is tied, with only 3.9 per cent flexible.¹

The analysis counts city funding, cantonal contributions to music in the city and lottery money.¹ The study comes from the initiative itself, not from a public authority.

Who benefits? In Lugano, mainly classical music, largely through lottery money, and 96.1 per cent of the funding goes to the same recipients over several years.¹ The analysis lists venues, events, institutions and projects; music schools do not appear. The study does not say how much reaches people learning to play an instrument.¹