Carnival in Bonn 2018 A parade full of atmosphere
Bonn · A quarter of a million people cheered when the carnival parade made its way through Bonn on Monday. The theme this year: „Let’s party and study.“
You don’t need a high school or university degree to party and catch sweets - the parade committee and the University of Bonn learnt this much from the 250,000 carnival fans lining the streets on Monday. The theme „Let’s party and study“ was an homage to the 200th birthday of the Alma Mater. But to be honest, partying alone worked fine as well yesterday. Everybody had a great time during the colourful and international parade. The only small drawback: One helper stumbled and injured his foot.
„We are carrying the carnival into the whole world“, said University rector Michael Hoch. He had invited two delegations from Japan and Poland to join in the Bonn „Fastelovend“. Together with the international choir, there 30 nations represented in this year’s parade.
International and intellectual competition was brought in by the UN Funken, who spread slogans like „Sustainable development“ and „Quality Education“. A vocabulary test for all carnival lovers…
As amazing as all music groups from all over Germany and the Netherlands were playing, they unfortunately weren’t perfectly spread out in the parade’s running order. Some „Mariechen“ like the ones from Vilich-Müldorf and Rot-Schwarz Endenich could not hear any sound and had to mime their performances and could only wave. But as soon as the „kölsche Jung“ and samba rhythms kicked off, the atmosphere picked up immensely.
Despite the Beuel Realschule students could not point to the Asbestos situation satirically, nobody stopped the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Gymnasium to joke about the missing assembly hall in their school.
The theme of the blue helm troup: „Two years in scaffolding, when will I be woken with a kiss?“ led to the thought that a „Bützchen“ (a small kiss during carnival) might just not be enough.
„This is all a lot of fun“, said Fuhra from the German-African Centre in her colourful outfit and danced down the street. Just like the Bolivians and the Bönnsche Chinese, who were invited by a completely crazy group from Dietfurt and der Altmühl. Thus there were Bavarian Chinese walking through Bonn with their emperor „Fu-Gau-Di“ - yet, there was not a single Chinese person in sight. „Apparently the Dietfurt people are as ambitious as the Chinese“, explained Daniele Palm. This is how the carnival group theme came about, almost 90 years ago. „Carnival in the Rhineland is cold but super“, she said. The only remedy: Move around a lot and throw lots of sweets…
Here are the videos of the parade in Bonn:
Teil 1:
Teil 2:
(Original text: Richard Bongartz / Translation: Mareike Graepel)
