“It was just very, very, very hot,” says the head of Bavaria’s second largest folk festival when asked why more people didn’t come. Which innovation was particularly well received.
More than 1.3 million people visited the Gäuboden folk festival in Straubing. This was announced by operations manager Daniel Winklmaier on Monday afternoon. The spectacle in the city with almost 50,000 inhabitants was supposed to end in the evening after a magnificent fireworks display. The fact that more visitors did not come to the fairground was probably due to the great heat. “It was just very, very, very hot,” said Winklmaier.
Around 7400 hectoliters of beer and shandies flowed down the throats of the party-loving visitors (2022: 7800 hectoliters; 2019: 8400 hectoliters). They also ate 39 oxen (2022: 34; 2019: 38) and, as in the previous year, around 50,000 grilled chickens (2019: 60,000). This year, however, cold dishes were particularly in demand.
A new feature this year was a drinking water fountain on the fairground, from which guests could tap water for free – there was great interest, and there were sometimes long queues. In 2022, around 1.3 million guests were also counted.
At the last Gäuboden folk festival before the corona pandemic, there were around 1.45 million visitors. The Ostbayernschau takes place parallel to the folk festival. 420,000 guests came here.