Celebrate, play and enjoy art and culture: the three-day town festival celebrating Roche's 50th anniversary in Penzberg offered a varied program over the weekend.
And the citizens gladly accepted this offer.
According to reports, around 3,000 people came to the town square for the rock night alone on Saturday.
Penzberg
– Admittedly, the start was pretty wet.
The organizers from Roche and the city would certainly have wished for the weather for the long night of shopping on Friday evening with the street music festival in the city center and the opening of the open-air exhibition "Fördern.Research.Fortschritt".
During the evening music program on the town square, it was pouring rain from time to time - but that didn't stop some passionate fans of the "Bee Gees" in particular from dancing in the rain when the band "Night Fever" began to play the best hits of the cult band.
The city bet was rather meager
On Saturday, the most glorious anniversary birthday weather prevailed throughout the day.
While two rather quiet program items were scheduled from the morning with the town twinning matinee and a workshop for building various pieces of furniture for the new public railway station, the town square was transformed into an open-air concert hall in the early evening at the Roche Rock Night, in which boisterous was celebrated.
Seniors danced alongside youngsters to the music of various bands, while crowds of children hopped around in front of the stage.
According to the police, there were no incidents.
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Representatives of the municipal music school and the Penzberger Tafel were happy about the Roche donation.
© Seliger
But while the rock night's music program seemed to go down well - if you take the crowd of dancing and singing people as a yardstick - the city bet that was announced turned out to be rather disappointing: the Roche company had bet with the city that they wouldn't be able to make a special one that evening To form a human chain with 100 people in the town square: all 100 people should be Penzbergers;
50 of them employed by Roche and the other 50 their family members.
But the formation of a human chain was not attempted that evening.
It was simply too narrow on the town square for that, explained City Hall spokesman Thomas Sendl when he stepped onto the stage at around 9.45 p.m. together with Roche Plant Manager Ulrich Opitz and Mayor Stefan Korpan.
Instead, all persons present should
to which the description required in the bet fits, just quickly raise your hand.
That's it.
Bet won for the city.
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Serious tones: At the interdenominational prayer on Sunday, Dean Martin Steinbach, Imam Benjamin Idriz and Pastor Bernhard Holz (from left) spoke about how different cultures and religions can coexist successfully.
© Seliger
Compared to the city bet in 2019, when 1000 people sang the Steigerlied together, it was rather poor.
Roche redeemed his bet on the spot: the music school received a donation check of 7,500 euros each for their planned purchase of a new concert grand piano and the Penzberger Tafel.
As plant manager Ulrich Opitz said, the donation should help the food bank to provide even more people in need with food.
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Water march: The Penzberg fire brigade provided welcome cooling at the retro game festival.
© Seliger
But the city festival wasn't just about loud and boisterous celebrations.
At the interdenominational prayer service on Sunday, the Catholic pastor Bernhard Holz, his Protestant counterpart, Dean Martin Steinbach (retired) and Imam Benjamin Idriz also struck a quiet, serious tone.
The city festival, said Pastor Holz, is a sign of the cohesion of the different religions and cultures in the city.
Only when the different educational or social classes respect each other and learn from each other, "then community works," says Dean Steinbach.
According to Imam Idriz, each individual can contribute to a better world by acting fairly and being a role model for future generations.
"It's up to each and every one of us," emphasized the imam in front of the numerous believers,
who had gathered for prayer in front of the Barbara chapel.
The young Penzbergers in particular got their money's worth at the retro game festival in the afternoon on the Berghalde.