Straw hat festival

2006: Tapping the festival beer with Miss Strohhut Corinna Metzger and the then Mayor Theo Wieder

The straw hat festival in the Rhineland-Palatinate city ​​of Frankenthal is a folk festival and the largest street festival in the Palatinate . Every year several 100,000 people celebrate - the city itself has around 50,000 inhabitants - for four days in the Frankenthal city center. The feast lasts from Ascension Day or Corpus Christi to the last feast day on the following Sunday. The date of the next party can be read off the countdown on the Miss Strohhut website .

Location

The festival mile extends in the city center within the two historic city gates, the Wormser Tor in the north and the Speyerer Tor in the south. From north to south, the area comprises Wormser Strasse from the city gate, the central Rathausplatz and Speyerer Strasse, as well as parts of Bahnhofstrasse and August-Bebel-Strasse, which lead from Rathausplatz to the west and east.

• The festival mile from north to south
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  Ferris wheel in front of the Wormser Tor

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  Worms Gate

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  Wormser Strasse

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  Main stage on the Rathausplatz

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  Speyerer Strasse

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  Speyer gate

Numerous fair stalls and booths along the house fronts, small wine and beer tents, stages and other attractions give the Straw Hat Festival the flair of a large folk festival. It has little in common with the festival hype; there are no rides except for a children's carousel , bumper cars and occasionally a ferris wheel , which was first set up in 2006 at Wormser Tor. The festival is mainly supported by the commitment of the local associations and the shops in the city center. The exception is August-Bebel-Straße, where the so-called Gleis4-Meile is partly operated by the Frankenthal cultural center Gleis4 itself and partly also rented to professional showmen .

Visitors

The festival has a wide impact in the region. In 2010, for example, according to the police, “well over 300,000 visitors” were counted. In view of the lower number of festive days, the straw hat festival can therefore be compared in terms of the number of visitors with the largest wine festival in the world, the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt , which attracts more than 600,000 people over nine days.

history

Emergence

Straw hat as worn on Father's Day and for the Straw Hat Festival

Before Frankenthal's inner city became a car-free pedestrian zone in the mid-1970s , the administration under the then Lord Mayor Günter Kahlberg (1936–1997) wanted to test what effects it would have if the north-south axis, i.e. Wormser and Speyerer Strasse, were the through traffic with motor vehicles would be blocked. On the occasion of the 1973 test, the opportunity was taken to set up fairground stalls along the car-free streets . The initiative was enthusiastically received by the citizens of Frankenthal and the associations - a new Frankenthal Festival was born. It has been held every year since 1975, and the city center has generally become a car-free pedestrian zone.

Surname

The Straw Hat Festival got its name because it began on the Christian holiday of Ascension Day, " Father's Day ", on which fathers in the Palatinate like to wear straw hats on their cheerful excursions . Such headgear, albeit with oversized dimensions, are hung over the Rathausplatz and Wormser Straße and make the motto of the festival visible from afar.

It is not true that a hat manufacturer was responsible for the naming, as is often assumed by outsiders; Arno Baumann (born April 10, 1924 - May 5, 2007), who was President of the Frankenthal Carnival Association from 1971 to 1999, is more likely to find the name. Meanwhile, the Straw Hat Festival takes place alternatively on the four days from Ascension Day or from Corpus Christi, depending on which of these festivals falls in the period at the end of May / beginning of June. Corpus Christi as a Catholic festival is a public holiday in Rhineland-Palatinate, like Ascension Day nationwide.

Miss Straw Hat

Lord Mayor Martin Hebich with Jenny Neufeld, Miss Strohhut 2017

Instead of a "Miss Frankenthal", the city has had a "Miss Strohhut" since the second straw hat festival in 1976. This must be of legal age and is re-elected every year for the Straw Hat Festival by a jury made up of officials and some citizens determined by lot . Since the new Miss Strohhut is usually presented on stage as part of a performance , dance or sporting qualifications of a candidate increase the chances of selection. For one year, the Miss Strohhut represented the city of Frankenthal at many events.

Year of choice Miss Straw Hat 1976 Bärbel Pulsfort, later Müller 1977 Pia Garst, later Garst-Schmitz 1978 Ursula Westerburg, later Roos 1979 Sonja Fries, later Kissel 1980 Susanne Denig, later Wintermeyer 1981 Dagmar Scupin 1982 Läticia Claudia Gebhardt, later Hylton 1983 Rita Galante 1984 Ute kick 1985 Margret Schulz, later Eck 1986 Caroline Messingschlager, later Wornath 1987 Anke Jendahl 1988 Martina Baum 1989 Alexandra Hickethier, later Hessel 1990 Petra Ziegeler, later Jarchow 1991 Astrid Klughammer, later Philippi 1992 Cristiane Hintemann, later Hintemann-Semrau 1993 Andrea Bletscher, later a cook 1994 Barbara Heidl, later Weber 1995 Sabine Greiner, later Clair 1996 Katja Bentz, later a tree gardener 1997 Jenny Ekström

Year of choice Miss Straw Hat 1998 Sabine Strohhäusl, later Clemens 1999 Jessica Graichen, later Butsch 2000 Teresa Di Napoli, later Celestino 2001 Sarah Keller, later Knoll 2002 Johanna Mayer, later Stock 2003 Tanja Gräf, later Klawitter 2004 Annette Pawliczek, later Keth 2005 Magali Petermann, later Leidig-Petermann 2006 Corinna Metzger 2007 Jutta Kaiser 2008 Julia Fast, later Merdian 2009 Domenica Lenczyk, later Mochmann 2010 Nina Rein 2011 Laura Engert 2012 Constanze Fuhrmanski, later Rogala 2013 Catharina Müller 2014 Sandra Hunter 2015 Nina Semrau 2016 Franziska Ratz 2017 Jenny Neufeld 2018 Emily Matejcek 2019 Vanessa Quietzsch

Accompanying events

music

Straw hat with hard buttons

In 2000, the Frankenthal rock band GRABOWSKY published the title “Strohhutfest”, which has since been regarded as the hymn of the festival. Text and music come from band member Alexander Hüther .

Buttons

Since 2001 “straw hat festival buttons ” have been sold, which are designed every year by a different local artist and which have since become collector's items . On the first day of the festival, Miss Strohhut and the Mayor of Frankenthal take a tour of the festival mile and sell the buttons. The proceeds will benefit various Frankenthal citizens' projects, e. B. 2007 the renovation of the historic canal port .

Sports

The Straw Hat Festival has been held on Sunday since 2004 . The 5340 m long route can be completed by participating in the traditional fun run as well as in the Nordic walking discipline .

Movie

After a first attempt with a video film, Martin Svoboda and Robert Kwiatek from Frankenthal have been producing several films about the festival since 2007 under the name “StrohhutfestTV”. At the premiere of the first film in Frankenthal's LuxKinos on November 17, 2007, six full performances with almost 800 paying spectators took place from afternoon until late at night; In the August-Bebel-Strasse in front of the cinema - given the low temperatures over mulled wine - a “straw hat festival” was spontaneously celebrated, in which 2,000 people took part.

Web links

Commons : Straw Hat Festival  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Miss Strohhut's website

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b Record} attendance at the Straw Hat Festival . In: Die Rheinpfalz , complete edition . Ludwigshafen June 7, 2010.
2. ↑ Miss Straw Hat. miss-strohhut.net, accessed on December 29, 2017 (countdown to the next festival at the top of the homepage).  
3. ↑ Speyerer Str. 50, birthplace of August von Parseval (1861–1942).
4. ↑ ^{a b} History of the Straw Hat Festival. miss-strohhut.net, accessed on December 29, 2017 .  
5. ^ Theo Wieder : Letter from the Lord Mayor to Frankenthaler all over the world. (PDF; 418 kB) (No longer available online.) Stadtverwaltung Frankenthal, December 2007, p. 15 , archived from the original on December 22, 2015 ; accessed on December 13, 2015 .  
6. ↑ electoral process. miss-strohhut.net, accessed on December 29, 2017 .  
7. ↑ ^{a b} "Alumni Club". miss-strohhut.net, accessed December 11, 2015 .  
8. ↑ Citizens project canal port. City administration Frankenthal, accessed on June 11, 2010 .  
9. ↑ Everything like in summer - only colder . In: Die Rheinpfalz , local edition Frankenthaler Zeitung . Ludwigshafen November 19, 2007.