Elvis still has to send a voice message, so the Pope is in front of him in the queue. But that doesn’t really matter, so it’s okay, because you can also sing on the way to the cloakroom, and about 99.3 percent of the guests do that at the moment when they enter the night work on Saturday evening. So the question of whether the carnival in Munich will be celebrated at the start of the first post-corona season was answered more than clearly at 7:03 p.m. However, a few others are still open. Who celebrates where, what and why at all? And what is the difference between the magnolia ball and the carnival party?
Elvis has now handed in his winter coat, singing Kölsch and now also with Kölsch in a glass, while next to him a woman with eyebrows like a bridge arch tells her companion about the journey between two songs: “The 19 is driving through.” Nod. “To Istanbul?” You can argue about the humor, but not about the costumes. The revelers from KMKV, the people of Cologne in exile in Munich, are relatively far ahead.
While a bus load of guests arrives every ten minutes, so that shortly before 8 p.m. there has long been a festive party crowd between the counters and the DJ booth, FC players, sailors and clowns continue to pour onto the dance floor. Unusual is rare, but the costumes are perfect. In the middle of it all, a female Ferrero kisses, which brings you to the question: What is this actually about? Except for the flirt and flirt hope that always comes along when going out.
Mandy Splettschläger, chairwoman and organizer of the evening, knows the exact answer for her clientele: “Exiled Rhinelanders come here.” And they just have to get rid of the traditions they have learned since childhood and the songs that go with them. Smash in the background Kasala her song “Pirate”, followed by “Never fall in love”, means “in dat girls behind the bar”.
love and freedom. That much is already clear after an hour. Whereby the people of Cologne have discarded their arrogance when it comes to foolish times. The carnival, especially the Munich one, is perhaps simply no longer a competitor, especially not after Corona. “In Munich you’ll be looked at in the subway if you’re wearing a costume, in Cologne if you’re not,” says Splettschläger. “Here you stand at bar tables, in Munich you sit at carnival balls,” that also shows the difference. It’s just different leagues, the guys in the jersey would probably say. “Simply joie de vivre,” says the chairwoman, which could be dismissed as a flat PR sentence if she didn’t add another example: “In Cologne, you tie your arms around while swaying, it’s more about partying.” In Munich you take the other person around the waist, “then your hand is quickly on your butt”. Of course, the poster above the DJ also says “Bütze”, Cologne kissing.
Cologne Carnival commemorates the first Saturday of the Wiesn
Carnival with the people of Cologne is like the first Saturday at the Oktoberfest in the Schützenzelt at just before twelve: Everyone knows exactly what needs to be done to get in the mood in the shortest possible time, they know the songs and the laws of the festival. The only difference apart from the glass size is that there is more make-up and less original wort involved at carnival. But the result is the same.
When the crew of sailors and pilots are present, the first real anthem comes out, “Et jitt kei Wood”, there isn’t a single word “that can say what I feel when I think of Kölle”. Pharaohs, popes, Al Capones think of Kölle, and they laze about in disco clouds, balloons and snakes. The now 500 people are as sure of their texts as the southern stand at Bayern and in the best over-40 celebration routine. Which you can’t necessarily say five kilometers further into town.
Big performance: the debutants at the Magnolia Ball in the Bayerischer Hof.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
For her, the outfit is classic.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The Magnolia Ball is an event especially for older carnival fans.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
Shortly before 9 p.m., the debutantes of the Magnolia Ball will be ready in the ballroom of the Bayerischer Hof. What does carnival have to do with a black and white ball or even the white festival that is also just starting? A lot.
The young people on the stairs to the hall are dressed in white evening dresses, tuxedos or uniforms, and here, too, the audience knows the music by heart. The debutants dance to “Wiener Blut”, and of course tails and sequins are disguises, just like the convict in the night work. The freedom to play a role and not have to be yourself is possible with any piece of clothing that you don’t normally wear. And while elsewhere there is philandering, here the woman exchange at the Française happens so simultaneously and so organized that the three gentlemen involved in their military uniforms should have a lot of fun.
And the lyrics have the same content instead of “You’re so beautiful” like them Höhner sing in “Princess”, the ball band breathes “better love me babe” from the song “Just a Gigolo”. A sprightly Silverager asks a lonely lady at the end of the table to dance, so that she immediately blushes with joy. All the beginners have long since disappeared from the dance floor to “Love is in the Air”, while a kilometer further south, Caesars and Engelinnen are getting in the mood for the evening with “Celebration”.
In the Isarpost the celebrations are all in white.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The White Festival is a traditional Munich costume party.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The White Festival in the Isarpost is a traditional Munich costume party. Originally invented and directed by the students of the Academy of Fine Arts decades ago, the principle of simple disguise has long been established in the city. Just like at the carnival festival, the average age could surprise the carnival layperson, which is clearly over 40. Christian Karpfinger, the organizer, says: “Many have the impression that the carnival festivals are no longer so well attended, it’s the same with us rather slow going.” However, three out of six evenings are now sold out. Some remained cautious even after Corona, says Karpfinger.
The Chemical Brothers groove through the room with “Galvanize” so that nurses, pilots and snowmen have to fear for their hats, which a lady with glitter drops on her eyes looks at calmly on the sidelines. Andi, 47, an elementary school teacher from Percha, is on a company outing, they want to match a colleague here. There is probably hardly a more prototypical visitor to this celebration. Andi, actually Andrea, says: “Young people don’t go to carnival because good looks have become so important to the Insta generation.” Her older children are 15 and 16. But maybe they just don’t go to an over 40 party, whether in FC shirts, tuxedos or in white.
On the other hand, it’s true: Dressing up to say goodbye to everyday life and seriousness, the best agers need that more than the teenagers, especially in Munich. Just let go, with music, mixed drinks and masquerade.