Local festival delights with record attendance and a peaceful atmosphere!

Local festival delights with record attendance and a peaceful atmosphere!

In Cologne, the city's local festival once again attracted numerous visitors this year. Ralf Aubele, the chairman of the local festival association, was able to report a successful start at the festival kick-off on Thursday. In addition to the tapping of the barrel, at which Mayor Ingo Bergmann attracted great interest - a video of which became a hit on social media - the opening of the local festival exhibition by the Friedrich-Adler-Realschule was another highlight. Despite a brief downpour that interrupted the parade concert, the guests quickly came together again in the beer garden and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Friday was blessed with an outstanding audience response. Many people stopped by the parade, while the morning pint on Saturday also attracted a lot of visitor interest. Over 350 children came to the family afternoon where a painting competition took place, the winning picture of which now adorns the local festival poster for the coming year, designed by Melina Hermann. On the evening of the local hour, which was led by the new presenter Isabel Rosteck, the atmosphere was still excellent.

Impressions and visitor numbers

The police estimate that around 120,000 festival guests came to Cologne's city center. It turned out that the festival was peaceful overall. In particular, the newly introduced roadblocks and security measures created a feeling of security among festival visitors. Stand operators were consistently positive about how the festival went, and festival host Michael Hahn emphasized the pleasant and peaceful atmosphere as well as the good response to the music program.

The sale of food was particularly pleasing. This year was better than last year and the trend towards non-alcoholic drinks and cyclists increased significantly. Jens Steinhagen, head of the public order office, assessed the festival as peaceful overall, apart from a mass brawl on Saturday, which did not spoil the overall impression. New barriers made of concrete blocks and steel cables have proven to be effective and effective.

Safety precautions in focus

Overall, the traffic situation in the city center was also satisfactory. Only two vehicles had to be towed. Heinz Gebauer from the showman family spoke of the constant number of visitors and highlighted the “Infinity” overhead swing as a highlight. The rides also ran smoothly from a technical point of view, with no negative incidents reported.

The importance of safe events, as was also observed at the local festival in Cologne, is increasingly being discussed in Germany. The Hessian state government has launched an emergency program to improve security at events, and Interior Minister Roman Poseck emphasizes the need to strive for a high level of security due to recent events. This seemed to have been successful in Cologne, which supports the positive outcome of the local festival.

Another exciting event is just around the corner: the 66th Lauterecker Local History Festival will take place from August 12th to 15th. The festival mile on Schillerstrasse becomes a party mile, entry is free on all days. Interestingly, this year the marquee will have a solid floor to avoid wet feet. The organizers, who work with the company Schütz Sound & Light from Oberweiler-Tiefenbach, among others, have planned ahead to offer visitors a great experience.

The local festival in Cologne not only created many wonderful memories, but also showed that safety and enjoyment can go hand in hand.