"Too many imponderables": "Beer festival" in Peiting's sister city Calvi canceled again

Created: 08/12/2022, 16:03

By: Barbara Schlotterer-Fuchs

All was right with the world back then: At the last "beer festival" in Peitingen's twin town of Calvi in ​​2019, things were still going on in the little town near Rome.

But then Corona came.

© Archive: Circle of Friends of Peiting-Calvi

A lot has suffered from Corona - including the town twinning between Peiting and Calvi dell'Umbria in Italy.

After two years of almost radio silence, the beer festival in Calvi has now been canceled again.

Peiting - "It's a bit sad," says Max Bertl, "but it doesn't help": After many phone calls, a lot of back and forth, the traditional "beer festival" that the Peitinger delegation always takes place on the last weekend in August is in the sister city of Calvi, has been cancelled.

In 2017, Bertl, highly motivated, took over the chairmanship of the Peiting – Calvi dell' Umbria Friends Group.

For the 25th time, the people from Peiting had last traveled to the small Italian town near Rome in 2019 with their then mayor Michael Asam.

And then Corona came.

"Too many imponderables": "Beer festival" in Peiting's sister city Calvi canceled

"I made a lot of phone calls to Mayor Guido Grillini," says Bertl.

Also with his host family.

The Chairman of the Circle of Friends even made the trip for a few days in May to clarify how the town twinning will continue.

"My heart is in it, it's like my family." And yet: in the end, reason prevailed.

The "Beer Festival" has been cancelled.

There are many reasons for this.

Because it was unclear for a long time whether there could be a "beer festival" at all, the request from the musicians was "very late", says Bertl.

Alternately, musical casts from Hohenfurch, Böbing, Peiting or Birkland provide the musical accompaniment.

After a bit of "muddle" it was clear: Nobody can come along.

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“All in all, there were just too many imponderables,” says Bertl.

Many of the helpers who travel on the bus belonged to the risk group due to their age.

40 people crammed together in a coach for twelve hours: In view of the increasing corona numbers, Bertl felt a bit uneasy.

Rising corona numbers mean that the risk is too high - but next year "Beer Festival" should rise again

In addition, the transporter with the fresh goods, which are transported to the festival from Peiting, must be in Calvi in ​​good time.

So what if the driver has Corona, the coach has already started and then no goods arrive in Calvi?

Or does someone on the coach have Corona?

What then happens to the whole tour group in Calvi?

"I would have accepted the financial damage, but not this risk."

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"People are also not entirely comfortable with welcoming guests into their families," says Bertl.

Sure: "You live together in a house." The numbers are increasing, "the fear in Calvi is difficult to understand or grasp, you don't know what the mood is like in Calvi".

Corona: So also a stress test for the town twinning.

The distance from Peiting to Calvi has not only increased geographically due to the pandemic.

Bertl is looking ahead: "Next year we will have the 'Beer Festival' firmly in our sights," he promises.

You want to plan early.

"And then we'll pull it off, we should do that."

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