The folk festival has recently fallen into disrepute because it has been considered a driver of infection since the Mitterteicher celebrated a strong beer festival a good year ago and afterwards the Tirschenreuth district was a corona hotspot. It was not just the festival, but celebrations of this kind are not suitable for fighting pandemics.
A certain closeness is unavoidable at a clever folk festival, usually you sit, excuse me, ass to ass on the beer bench. Everyone can break off a piece of the giant pretzel and the cheese, thinly sliced and salted, is also meant to be reached. Sociable, but not at all anti-corona-compliant.
Not to mention the later escapades on and under the beer table and the smooching behind the bumper car, that is, that “beer-loving atmosphere” that the state government fears.
Sometimes you would like to know what if. What, for example, Franz Josef Strauss would say about the black and green dreams of his self-proclaimed heir Markus Söder. Or how Herbert Fischer blessedly found the ban on public festivals through his CSU, of all things. Not good, probably. You have to know that Fischer was a long-time member of the state parliament with a sense for art and card games, but primarily a long-time speaker at the folk festival in his home town of Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate. For days he only left the fairground to quickly change his traditional shirt. A jovial man, popular with the people, not only because he always gave generous beer tokens. Fischer achieved his greatest triumph – almost at least – when the CSU once argued over the smoking ban. That should initially contain exceptions, even for beer tents and folk festival halls at Fischer’s vehement pressure. This gave him national recognition for a short time – until the CSU overturned all exceptions and nevertheless decided on a strict smoking ban.
There are now exceptions again, for alternative events. There can be rides, stalls, beer, maybe even beer tokens. The main thing is that it doesn’t say Volksfest. However, the title of substitute event speaker doesn’t look good. It’s good that it was different in Herbert Fischer’s time.