Traditional home evening: outdated model or sustainable form of entertainment?
Created: 11/30/2022 06:22
By: Josef Hornsteiner
Is the Heimatabend format still popular with guests and locals?
This is the question that Mittenwald folks ask themselves.
© Josef Hornsteiner
The decline in visitors to the Mittenwald homeland evenings continues even after Corona.
Now the traditional costumers sometimes want to look for an alternative to the TSV gym - and look to Grainau for inspiration.
Mittenwald – For some it is a backward-looking, dusty form of entertainment.
For others, the opportunity to convey genuine, authentic customs to both tourists and locals.
Is the homeland evening a discontinued model?
In the case of the Mittenwald traditional costumers, almost nobody questions the traditional event.
Opinions differ a little on how the traditional evenings can be made sustainable, as became clear at the annual general meeting of the mountain costume association on Saturday.
Chairman Franz Lipp, commonly known as Dauberweiß, who made himself available in the new elections for the last time as the head of the preservation of customs (report follows), now wants to look for solutions with his new management team.
An average of 90 guests attended the five Mittenwald folk evenings plus one spa concert this year, sums up announcer Peter Wimmer.
"The numbers are declining again for the first time." Unfortunately, the hoped-for upswing after the corona crisis did not materialize.
"We thought people wanted to get out and experience something again," says Wimmer after lockdown and Co. But caution seems to have prevailed - or the Heimatabend format is simply no longer in demand.
The train left.
Florian Lipp, Free Voters councilor and longtime chairman of the music band
Florian Lipp, free voter councilor and former music band chairman, doesn't hide it either.
"The train has left," says the "Dauberweiß'n-Flori", who played a key role in shaping the traditional folk evening music.
He is certain that there will no longer be a TSV gym that is always jam-packed like it was in the 1980s and 1990s.
He also points out who the home evenings are for: “The spa guest doesn’t understand an announcement in the deepest Mittenwald dialect.” Lipp’s suggestion would be to use understandable written German and explain songs and groups for it.
People who wear traditional costumes don't want to give up Heimatnacht in principle
But the Trachtlers don't want to give up their beloved traditional event - just because of the 72 active Plattler children between the ages of seven and 15.
In principle, would the Puit spa complex be a more suitable place?
After all, Grainau also achieves an outstanding visitor rate of up to 1200 guests per event on a mild summer evening with its open-air folklore evenings in the Kurpark Pavilion, says Franz Lipp.
"But in the Puit you are simply dependent on the weather." And the logistical effort would be great if all participants had to be canceled on the same day because of rain - although that works well in Grainau, explains Mayor and Vice-Chairman of the Gau, Stephan Märkl.
"There is a cancellation at 12 noon on the same day on posters and via WhatsApp," he explains.
But even if the Einsager problem were solved, the aging facility in the Puit urgently needs a facelift, says not only Stefan Weineisen, who would also like an alternative to the gym.
Because as a former cashier, he knows better than anyone else that a home evening in its current form is a huge "add on business".
After all, the TSV, as the owner of the hall, charges 450 euros per event – that is a whopping 2250 euros per year.
