Everything is finally back the way it has always been. The showmen and restaurateurs at the spring festival on the Theresienwiese, which starts this Friday, are visibly relieved that the 57th edition of this event can take place again without any Corona requirements, so that excessive celebrations can again take place. There had already been an unexpected onslaught last year, despite the war of aggression against Ukraine that had begun a few weeks earlier and which, among other things, had prevented Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) from celebrating at the time. Now the operators of the spring festival, the event company of the Munich showmen (VMS), hope that the folk festival atmosphere will revive just as furiously as it did in 2022.
In any case, hosts and showmen want to do their part. VMS spokeswoman Yvonne Heckl promised on Wednesday at the press presentation in the Festhalle Bayernland, one of the two large beer tents at the Spring Festival: “We are again offering the people of Munich an amusement park that we redesign every year!” This year, however, the priority is to hold everything again that was only partially possible or not at all in the past three years.
That would be primarily the two big fireworks on the two Fridays, April 28th and May 5th, at 10 p.m. They are actually a traditional part of the spring festival, but have not been able to take place in the past three years. Now it’s back, and Yvonne Heckl expressly emphasizes: “A great deal of attention is paid to sustainability and low environmental pollution.” The plastic housings used could be reused, no aluminum parts fell on the floor.
The equally traditional giant flea market will take place again this year – just like last year – on the first Saturday from seven in the morning. And on Sunday there will also be another classic car meeting of the Munich Automobile Club (ACM) with a car parade across the fairground (9 a.m. to 5 p.m., parade at 10 a.m.). Last year the classic car meeting had to be canceled due to a lack of registrations. The ACM has or would have even more reason to celebrate this year: it will be 120 years old this year. He doesn’t make a fuss about it, though.
The Hippodrome is celebrating an anniversary that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
(Photo: Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer)
Unlike Tina and Sepp Krätz’s Hippodrome, which expressly celebrates its 120th anniversary on the Theresienwiese, among other things with “lunch dishes at an anniversary price from seven euros”, Tuesdays to Fridays. But you have to be a bit generous, because it’s actually about the 121-year-old; a tent called the Hippodrome was at the Wiesn for the first time in 1902. And what is there today in the middle of the Spring Festival is by no means the original Hippodrome tent, but much smaller and only represented there since 2010. A somewhat dubious anniversary for historians, but good: you don’t want to be that precise at a folk festival, as long as the fun is there.
Music lovers might say something similar when they look at the music program in the other large beer tent, the Bayernland Festhalle by Peter and Petra Schöniger. A “star guest appearance” has been announced for Monday, April 24th: DJ Ötzi then wants to rock the marquee, presumably with his evergreen “Anton aus Tirol”, which can easily keep up with the Wiesn hit “Layla”, as far as spiritual content is concerned.
There’s also plenty going on for children at the Spring Festival.
(Photo: Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer)
But there are also all sorts of new things at the Spring Festival, especially in the fairground section. For example, the “high-round ride” Kick Down, in which individual gondolas whiz across a rotating plate at an incline at up to 50 kilometers per hour. The “Bayern-Tower”, a 90 meter high chain carousel, is also making its debut at the Spring Festival as a counterpart to the large Oktoberfest Ferris wheel on the west corner of the festival site. Also new is the 3-D cinema “Big Pictures 2.0”, which adds a few other dimensions, such as swaying armchairs and tingling touches. There is also a “children’s carousel” with gondolas that go up and down, as well as a basketball shop and various new food stands.
The spring festival will open this Friday at 4 p.m.; Economics officer and Wiesn boss Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) will then tap the first barrel in the Festhalle Bayernland. Before that, at 2.30 p.m., there will be free beer at the old congress hall behind the Bavaria – the breweries Augustiner, Hofbräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner and Spaten invite you to do so. At 3 p.m. there is a procession to the Theresienwiese, with a concert by the festival tent bands at the Wiesn entrance.