With several TV programs, the BR television accompanies the Franconian Fastnacht again this year. It starts this Friday, January 13th, with the “Foolish Wine Tasting”, on February 10th, for the first time after two years of the corona pandemic, the TV show “Fastnacht in Franken” from Veitshöchheim will be broadcast live again on the program , the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) announced on Tuesday.
In addition to the return to the tried and tested from before the pandemic, there are also a number of innovations and changes, for example the youth program is getting a new name. BR editor Rüdiger Baumann explained that in the first Corona edition of “Fastnacht in Franken” in spring 2021, no audience was actually admitted, in 2022 the program was recorded two days earlier for security reasons, with a reduced number of viewers.
In addition to “Mainz Stays Mainz” – broadcast on the first – “Fastnacht in Franken” is the only live TV show on German television. This year, the Franconian Fastnacht Association, as the organizer of the pompous session, and the BR are planning with 600 spectators each for the dress rehearsal and the live broadcast from the Veitshöchheim Mainfrankensäle.
The BR assumes that numerous politicians will come to Veitshöchheim near Würzburg again for the “Fastnacht in Franken”. “We have state elections in 2023,” explained BR editor Baumann: “We assume that hardly any politician will miss the opportunity to enter the election campaign in a costume.” Traditionally, leading Bavarian state politicians come to Lower Franconia disguised in an original way – Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has appeared there in recent years, for example as Shrek, as a punk or as his predecessor Edmund Stoiber.
For the “foolish wine tasting” they have moved to the official barrel cellar
What is new about the “Foolish Wine Tasting”, which was only recorded last weekend in the Würzburg Residence, is the location: instead of the rather cramped piece barrel cellar, the 20th edition has been moved to the so-called official barrel or deputy cellar, said the BR editor Bauman. Comedian Martin Rassau from the Comödie Fürth, as a participating artist, spoke of a great atmosphere at the new location in the wine cellar of the Staatliche Hofkeller. BR editor-in-chief Norbert Küber said that the “cozy cellar atmosphere” was combined with a modern ambience by means of a sophisticated light installation.
BR’s youth carnival program has also been completely revamped. “Woe, if you let go” now becomes “Carnival in Franconia – young and foolish”. The show will be broadcast on February 19. What is conceptually new is that the young artists are accompanied and coached by experienced carnival actors such as cabaret artist Michel Müller or ventriloquist Sebastian Rauch. The quartet of Fastnachts TV programs completes the program “Franken Helau” from Amorbach on January 27, said Baumann. In the Odenwald, “the borders in the border triangle of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse” were artistically crossed.
The TV pompous session “Fastnacht in Franken” (FiF) flickered on BR television for the first time in 1987 – once from Lichtenfels in Upper Franconia, since then it has been broadcast from Veitshöchheim. In 1991 “FiF” was canceled due to the Second Gulf War. The Franconian Fastnacht Association and BR are responsible for the pompous TV session. In 2021, around 2.81 million people watched nationwide, the market share in Bavaria was 37.9 percent. The program has been the most successful of all third-party TV programs for years.