Karneval round-up Bonn and Cologne celebrate in the sun
Bonn/Cologne · Initial scares about high winds and heavy storms, gave way to sunshine and smiles for “Rosenmontag” parades in Bonn and Cologne.
Despite the heavy storm warnings from the German weather service (DWD), Karneval enthusiasts had decent weather on Monday to experience the “Rosenmontag” parades. After some heavy rain in the morning, the afternoon brought over 2 ½ hours of sunshine, periodically interrupted by a few dark clouds. The heaviest wind gust was measure at 2:00 p.m., 63 kilometers per hour, making it an “8” on the wind scale. Düsseldorf and Mainz had cancelled their parades, along with many other towns including Dortmund and Essen.
Even though there was plenty of sun and Kamelle (treats thrown out at the parade), the crowd number in Bonn was far less than the 200,000 expected. Some adjustments had to made as well; not all of the horses were allowed to participate. This resulted in a riding corps from Beuel – grown men on little white wooden stick horses. Corps member Michael Stodolik quipped, “They are very subdued, they all had a shot before we came out.”
Participants in the Bonn parade numbered around 4,300 and it celebrated through the city of Bonn for about 3 hours. Musicians were fully prepared in case of high winds. “We know our songs by heart anyways” said Michael Vianden and Martin Rübner from a music club in Duisdorf.
Police reported some incidents but nothing that would really rain on the parade. They took ten persons into custody for causing mischief, throwing over bikes and verbally abusing people. Seven persons had to be taken to hospital, five of them due to alcohol consumption. Four of those were youth, and two other youth were turned over to their parents after having had too much alcohol. Police confiscated 33 big bottles and 157 little bottles of alcohol, and ten packs of cigarettes from under-age youth.
The Cologne parade got underway at 10:00 a.m., minus 500 horses. No need to scare the horses in case high winds did appear. But carnevalists there also enjoyed the better than expected weather. On the floats were a likeness of both Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin - the latter sans shirt. The Cologne parade is the longest in Germany, and Cologne a major Karneval city. Officials there said it would have been terrible to cancel their parade. Parade goer Mario Lagreca put it this way, “If the parade had not taken place, it would have been Ash Wednesday all year long”.
(Orig. text: Richard Bongartz/bot/dpa/vfa)
