Stadfest!

One of my favourite things about living in Germany is that we have all these fun little local festivals.  I would hazard to guess that on at least 90% of weekends there is a local festival happening in at least one town less than an hour from me.  The most enjoyable, though, is when it is right here in my own hometown, as it is this weekend.

This weekend is our Stadtfest (city festival), which is put on by the city itself (with plenty of sponsors of course), as opposed to the fall Kerwe which is put on by the local churches.  Both are really nice ways to get people out and about and build a sense of community, both offer fundraising opportunities for local clubs, and both are fun.

We kicked things off Friday night with a low key, DJ hosted party in the main event area: the school courtyard.

The DJ was excellent, but no one was dancing.  Personally, I find it hard to dance on hard bricks without pain in my knees.

The first "real" event on Saturday was the early afternoon tapping of the ceremonial keg.  The Burgermeister (mayor) does this and then hands out free beers until it is all gone.  You can't beat that!

Eppelheim has an agricultural background (and is still surrounded by farms and fields) so one of our main events in the Stadfest evolves from that: the Heuwagon races (hay wagon races).  The course is set up over a small section of local streets and around the water tower.  The first races are the pedal car races, which are mostly kids, but the mayor and some other town officials always get in on the act as well:

While the racers are off pedaling hard, the race official cools off with a small beer:

The pedal car races serve as a good time for everyone in the main area to notice that things are about to start happening, and the number of people lining the street builds as the first of the hay wagon races take place.  The initial races involve small competitors and small wagons:

"Small" generally refers to the under 11 crowd (broken into two age groups) but yesterday it also included the over 90 crowd!  These ladies got lots of cheers, especially as their nurses pulled them back around for the second half of the race:

The main event involves 800 kilo wagons!  This year was not nearly as hot as last year, thank goodness.  It still takes a lot of strength, and a bit of skill to maneuver such heavy and cumbersome wagons down not only straight paved streets, but through sand traps and around curves, down a twisty bricked street and around the water tower in a tight circle (note, only 4 people are allowed to touch the wagon at a time, one steering and three pushing--the teams can have others run along side and switch off as needed).  

The sand really does slow those poor guys down:

and the corners can be tricky:

But it sure is pretty, and a little lonely, back on the back stretch and around the water tower:

We had to head home to get ready for guests as the race was finishing up, so I have no idea which of the seven teams had the fastest time:  we missed seeing the little haywagon (full of beer bottles) awarded to the winners.  

Most years, there is a live band on Saturday night, but this year a big screen was up and there was a Public Viewing of the World Cup game to decide third place.  

There was also a breakfast this morning, and a live band playing traditional German music.  Normally, everything would close up and be taken down begining at about 2:00 this afternoon.  Tonight, Germany plays in the final for the 2014 World Cup, so everything is remaining up so people can watch the game together there.  We walked by and it is packed--but we prefer to watch at home, where no one can smoke nearby.  If Germany wins, I may have to head over and see a bit of the post game celebrations though.

--Hadley