Since March 2020, PCR tests have been carried out at the Volksfestplatz in Markt Indersdorf. The queues are often long there, because the only state test center in the district is in Indersdorf. And with a staggering 7-day incidence of 2250.6 per hundred thousand population, the county’s need for PCR testing continues unabated. Now the test center in Indersdorf, which is centrally located in the district, has to make way for the Indersdorfer Volksfest at the end of the month, for which the site is to be prepared again after a two-year break. Instead, the test center will move to the district border in Karlsfeld.
“We’ve been planning the folk festival since the middle of last year just as if it were going to take place,” says Josef Schuster junior, who has helped organize the folk festival since 2006. As in previous years, he concluded contracts with showmen, the brewery and the landlord in good time for this year. “The band has already been committed,” he says. At the moment he is optimistic that the folk festival can take place from May 20th to 29th as planned. Therefore, preparatory work such as preparing the square must be started in good time. Just setting up the tent alone takes about four weeks. Whether, and under what conditions, celebrations can actually be celebrated in May remains a big unknown for Schuster, too. Because if the occupancy of the tent should be massively limited, says Schuster, you have to weigh up whether the festival is financially worthwhile. If not, he would have to cancel everything again.
At the moment it looks like the carousel will turn again at the Indersdorfer Volksfest in May.
(Photo: Toni Heigl)
What is already certain: PCR tests will no longer be carried out on the Volksfestplatz from February 25th. Instead, the Bavarian test center will be merged with the drive-through vaccination center at Karlsfelder See. Because the Karlsfeld vaccination center was designed for high numbers, says Sina Török from the Dachau district office. At the moment, however, very few people have been vaccinated. Therefore, in the future, only one of the two lanes of the drive-through vaccination route should be vaccinated and tested on the other lane. The state PCR test operation in Karlsfeld is expected to start on Saturday, February 26th. However, since the Markt Indersdorf test center will already close on Thursday evening, February 24, 2022, no tests will be possible on Friday, February 25, 2022 according to the current status.
How long the test center in Karlsfeld should remain is also still open. Just like the question of whether the test center will move back to the fairground in Indersdorf after the folk festival has been dismantled in the summer. “We then have to see whether the fairground is still the best place, or whether there is a better place elsewhere,” says Török. However, the test center cannot remain in Karlsfeld. Because that’s where the settlers’ festival is supposed to take place in the summer.