Like most German towns, we also have a festival that is put together by the local churches--our Kerwe. I am not sure if the churches are the main sponsors of all Kerwes, or just locally (if any of my German readers want to clear that up for me, I would be grateful!). In any case, it is a terrifically fun town wide event that brings out pretty much all the residents, and draws people in from nearby towns as well.
Our Kerwe was a couple of weeks ago. During the week, some vendors come in and set up a few carnival style rides--in our town one of the church parking lots is always covered in a bumper car ride and there are always 5 or 6 other things as well. Some other outside vendors come in with food. Then, just about every local club has a spot (most seem to have the SAME spot every year) where they sell some sort of food or rink (or both) as their major fundraiser for the year. Many have tents with places to sit and some even provide live music. I LOVE this style of fundraising--where the entire community comes otu and comes together and has fun, and the clubs make some much needed cash to boot. This is much nicer than random car washes and BINGO games that seem to be the norm in the US (and 1000 times nicer than selling magazines, candy bars or wrapping paper!).
There are some vendor selling crafts as well, an in our town two blocks are set aside for local kids and teens to set up a flea market to sell off old toys, clothes and sporting goods (they don't have garage sales here, so this is a great chance for the kids). The whole thing takes up about 6 blocks worth of streets (in a cross section) as well as two big paring lots and both of the main churches in town (one hosts an art fair and the other a teen disco).
Even though it was rainy on our weekend, everyone came out. The party ran late into the night both Saturday and Sunday. The kids had dinner there on Saturday (while Dave and I were still driving back from Venice) and we all had lunch and snacks on the Sunday. It is FUN and so nice to get to have fun and contribute to the local clubs at the same time.
Here are some photos of the fest, about one block from our house:
Walking from our house towards the Kerwe
Bumper Cars!
The carnival area
The local brewery brought in their beer truck and clubs were working it and getting to keep proceeds.
The kids flea market
A peak into one of the many food tens
David enjoys "New Wine" and onion tart (both typical fall items here--sort of Germany's version of apple Cider and donuts)
Rio's favourite stand. The traditional Hungarian Dance Troupe sells a Hungarian fried dough topped with your choice is sweet or savory toppings. Lots of people love it--the line is always LONG.
a Sunday afternoon crowd shot--just to show how many people come to this.
FYI--I am heading out of town again and may not be bale to post for the next two weeks. Please check back after that though--I plan write even if I am not here to post it and get things up as soon as I can afterwards.
--Hadley
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