As of: March 7, 2024, 8:59 p.m
By: Katarina Amtmann
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The folk festival season begins in Bavaria (archive image).
© IMAGO / Manfred Segerer
The first spring folk festivals begin in Bavaria, and there is hardly any sign of a crisis mood.
But: Smaller festivals in particular have problems.
Munich - Bavaria welcomes the folk festival season with bumper cars, tapping of barrels and brass music.
The beer tents celebrate with hearty food and a pint of beer, accompanied by traditional tavern music.
Folk festivals start in Bavaria: “The regulations are making life difficult for us”
Ox on the spit, cheerful musicians, Ferris wheel and carousel: the season of fairs and beer tent fun begins in the Free State this weekend with the first folk festivals.
Hardly anyone in the big cities is likely to notice the crisis mood in the showmen's industry - but for the small church fairs, according to the chairman of the South German Association of Traveling Showmen and Traders, things don't look so rosy.
The industry is struggling with staff shortages, high energy costs, supply chain problems and enormous bureaucracy.
“The regulations make life very, very difficult for us,” said Lorenz Kalb in Nuremberg.
People support each other, “but we need significant cost relief from politics.”
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Spring folk festival in Würzburg, Gögginger spring festival in Augsburg
The spring folk festival starts in Würzburg on Saturday, March 9th.
As the city in Lower Franconia announced, it is the first major folk festival of the year in Bavaria, which takes place three weeks before Easter.
In Augsburg, people are invited to the Gögginger Spring Festival the evening before.
The aim is to attract as many guests as possible with free beer and a brass band.
The folk festival was launched more than half a century ago in Göggingen, which was still an independent town at the time.
The small town was later incorporated into neighboring Augsburg, which is why it is now a district festival in the Swabian metropolis.
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The 58th Munich Spring Festival begins on April 19th at Theresienwiese.
Until May 5th, two festival tents and over 100 showmen with rides and stalls will ensure a lively atmosphere and enthusiasm, and not just for the children.
In cities like Nuremberg, Ingolstadt and Regensburg, the first folk festivals are also taking place in spring - many visitors then dress traditionally in dirndls or lederhosen, checked shirts and Haferl shoes.
Folk festival season starts in Bavaria: small church consecrations are having problems
Lorenz Kalb is optimistic about the coming season.
It is not noticeable that people are spending less due to inflation.
“We also have very good Christmas markets behind us.” Efforts are being made to keep “popular prices”.
Nevertheless, there have been fewer and fewer showmen and dealers since the Corona pandemic.
The catering industry has great difficulty finding staff.
“There are small church consecrations that can no longer be held because there are no showmen,” says Kalb.
While large folk festivals can compensate for a lack of applicants or companies through other showman businesses, this is much less often the case at smaller events.
(came/dpa)
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