Bad Laasphe’s big moment comes during the annual Altstadtfest, or Old Town Festival, celebrated in the town’s mediaeval streets on a single weekend in August. Detested by the residents who actually live in the old part of town for its noise, dirt and stink – but not an issue for people from greater Bad Laasphe who don’t have to re-locate their car and don’t find broken bottles in their yards. And then there are some people who consider themselves culturally, socially or morally superior to the ‘farmers’ – the petit bourgeois and some of the aspiring arty, pseudo- revolutionary teenagers with their dreadlocks and torn clothes – these groups aside, the event is heavily anticipated by the majority of the region’s citizens. It’s a round-up of all things thought to be fun in order to entertain everyone. It is the region’s major annual event. There is a long tradition of town festivals in Germany. For example, there are marksmen’s festivals with shooting matches, whose winner is crowned king for a year, marching bands lead a parade of riflemen and their partners through town, people wear traditional clothes, there are dances, speeches. Other regions celebrate wine festivals, nominating a wine queen, probably also celebrated with parades, traditional dances and speeches. Some places, most notably in the region around Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz, have huge carnivals between November and March, loosely based on pagan rituals from centuries ago. And of course there is the Oktoberfest in Munich. Each year, the Altstadtfest attracts thousands of visitors from surrounding villages and towns, some from farther afield. Entertainment includes marching bands from the Netherlands and jugglers — one of the big acts in 2011, a juggler from Berlin, was sponsored by a large local company’s partners in Japan as a thank-you for donations for the disastrous events in and around Fukushima – but generally it is a celebration of the local beer, sports clubs, companies, religious organisations and local talent. The Altstadtfest is an important event for high school rock bands as they get to perform at such venues as the Rockpalast – the Palace of Rock. The Altstadtfest started off thirty years ago as a celebration of the old town, to raise awareness of the town’s heritage, certainly to foster a sense of civic pride. The streets were re-paved in the 80’s or early 90’s to resemble historic examples, so there certainly is some awareness of this being a historic site. But on the other hand every little village has its historic buildings. Laasphe is not particularly special that way. The Altstadtfest is like the Oktoberfest, but smaller, without much of a heritage aspect to it, if any at all ... save the name. The festival brochure features a greeting from the mayor referring to the historic downtown simply as a picturesque backdrop for the festival. The Altstadtfest transforms the old town: while residents flee from the noise, the broken glass and the pee-stained alleys, the centre is closed to traffic to make way for portable washrooms, stages for performances, rides and games for entertainment and street vendors selling sweets and cheap plastic toys. As intoxicated people crowd the streets, the old part of town becomes a fair ground. The Altstadtfest works because it offers entertainment on so many levels and at such a large scale. You don’t necessarily even have to actively participate. Due to the high density of ‘life’ around you, you’d have trouble escaping it even if you wanted to. But is it really only a fair? Is the main objective to get drunk, go on rides and look for romantic entanglements during this once-a-year event where, due to the sheer volume of people, you don’t have to worry about being caught in a compromising situation by someone you know?
lisa dietrich: all photos taken at 8am, the morning after
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top: looking east along Mauerstrasse (Wall street) at the north edge of the old town. Festival tents and portable toilets seem of place with no one around above: the palace of rock is a popular venue featuring highschool bands with names such as The Strawhats or J A G Schulband
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