Heidelberg Faschings Parade 2015

Like New Orleans celebrating Mardi Gras, Heidelberg always celebrates Faschings with a parade on Fat Tuesday.  Being a small city, having a large university and being a tourist town all contribute to our parade being quite a big bigger and having more of a prolonged party atmosphere than the smaller, more hometown celebration of Michelstadt.  Heidlberg is much smaller than the Rose Monday celebrations in Köln (Cologne) and Mainz, never really out of control (that I have ever seen) and there is no charge for simply being downtown to view and celebrate,  but it is not tiny by any stretch of the imagination.

It's a pretty long route, running for about 1 kilometer down Bergheimer Strasse and then down the full length of the long pedestrian zone in the city, for a total distance of nearly three kilometers.  It moves slowly too--starting at 2:11 and generally begining to pass by our preferred viewing location near Universitätplatz around 4:00.  And it is all the lead up to one giant party: the final float is always sponsored by the radio station Sunshine Live, which plays loud music out behind the float and ropes off a safe distance back--after which a growing stream of attendees join in a moving street party as they follow the parade further into the city.  Yesterday it took a good ten minutes for all the people to pass us by as they kept coming and coming, ready for more fun lasting well into the night.  I've never been one for long or loud parties, so am always among the 20% or so heading away from the madness once the parade has passed me by (most of the rest heading my way have young kids or are seniors).

I had a few technical difficulties yesterday, so do not have as many photos as I'd like, but here is what I got to share:

Most of the route is JAMMED with people, but there is a small stretch just before Uniplatz that is virtually empty every year--so that is where we head.  This photo was taken at 3:30, as the parade was coming into earshot.  

First up we always have two police cars: one driving right on the right edge of where people are allowed to stand and the other on the left, to move the crowd into a safe position.

The man playing the part of Perkeo (legendary wine taster whose likeness is still in Heidelberg Castle) spent the entire 10 minutes that his float was going past our area, glued to his cell phone.  I guess it gets boring after 2 hours up there?  I am always amazed by how energetic and into it the marchers normally are, even that late into the parade--even little kids and even when it is very cold; I guess eventually someone not so interested had to come along.  

(a little more on Perkeo is here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkeo_of_Heidelberg)

Most bands all have matching facepaint too.

It was quite a bit colder yesterday than Sunday--so most groups had capes no over their fancy dresses.

In the "big city" we primarily have trucks, instead of tractors

We have more and more witch groups each year

The ONE tractor 

The witches look scary, but are all about silly fun.  They dump loads of confetti on the crowd, often tease and interact and play around, and frequently hand out small toys to the children (this is in addition to the candy that all the groups pelt young and old with).  

The Ziegelhausen Hexen (witches) have bee in the parade every time I have seen it (and likely a very long time, Ziegelhausen is a section of Heidelberg).  

Here you can see one of the witches chasing a child around her mother (all in good fun, no frightened child, lots of laughing).  There is a LOT of crowd interaction like that from most groups.  I missed the "money shot" when another witch went after Marika with a broom, Marika pulled out her wand and they had a "duel")

And at this point, my battery gave out, but the parade was near the end anyway.  I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of all the fun in Heidelberg for Faschings.

--Hadley