After dismantling is before building.
According to this rule, showmen live like those who loaded the last items from the autumn dip fair in Frankfurt into their trucks in the middle of the week.
When one of the folk festivals is finished and the carousel is dismantled, the next fair is called.
Daniel Meuren
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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Wolfram Ahlers
Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for Central Hesse and the Wetterau.
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Oliver Bock
Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and for Wiesbaden.
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Markus Schug
Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.
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Of course, the rhythm has shifted significantly since the beginning of the corona pandemic. Often the TÜV was twice at the companies for its annual technical inspection of the rides, without the roller coaster or bumper car being allowed to be set up even once in between. And even now, after a large part of the around 150 companies organized in the Frankfurt / Rhein-Main Schaustellerverband (Schaustellerverband Frankfurt / Rhein-Main) were able to achieve good sales for two weeks at the region's first major festival since the beginning of Corona, there is still no normality.
"First of all, we are back in life, and we are very grateful for that," says Thomas Roie, chairman of the regional showmen's interest group.
“But the next event doesn't follow as usual in the past.
Unfortunately, festivals in Gelnhausen and Bad Nauheim or the Hochheimer Markt have already been canceled by the municipalities.
Too few follow the Frankfurt example. "
"We want!"
And so many of the showmen who are now unemployed again almost only have the hope of the Christmas markets. After these had been canceled everywhere last year due to the pandemic, the municipalities are now approaching the end of the year with more confidence, especially since the new Corona regulation for Hessen generally allows Christmas markets and leaves the municipalities a lot of responsibility for the specific design. From Wiesbaden, Offenbach and also the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital Mainz, as from Frankfurt, the will to make possible what is possible according to the course of the pandemic can be heard.
"We want!", Says the responsible economic dean Manuela Matz (CDU) in Mainz, who on Tuesday explained the state of affairs to the deliverers of the Christmas market starting on November 25th. She kept the statements with the reservation that a new Corona regulation will not be announced in Rhineland-Palatinate until the beginning of October, which will apply from October 10th. Matz assumes that, as in Hesse, a general permit for Christmas markets will be issued. Mainz wants to expand the classic location of the Christmas market on the market square directly in front of the cathedral to include the neighboring Liebfrauenplatz and another location on the town hall plateau or Ernst-Reuter-Platz in front of the court.
In addition, stalls selling Christmas goods such as Christmas tree decorations or candles are distributed along the shopping streets. Not only should the events be straightened out, the stands should also connect the market square with the other locations. “At the mulled wine stands, which have to be structurally separated, Matz is considering the obligation to comply with the 2-G rule. “The feeders should have the opportunity to finally go back to their job. This is important not only from a financial, but also an emotional point of view. You have to see perspective again, ”she says. On the other side of the Rhine in Wiesbaden, meanwhile, the feeders are being asked to what extent the shooting star market on Schlossplatz is economically interesting for them under the applicable regulations. It is conceivable for the city to fence in the market area,in order to be able to apply a 2-G or 3-G rule for access.
Dippemess has empirical values
In Frankfurt around the Römerberg, such a fence seems to be ruled out, as it was set up by the organizer Tourismus und Congress Frankfurt (TCF) at the Dippemess with a remarkable 186734 visitors on 15 days of the event.
"I can not imagine that.
The Christmas market is located in the city center and is not a fairground.
We cannot fence in the city center, ”says Thomas Feda, managing director of the TCF.
“The free accessibility of the site is therefore also our most difficult topic in preparation.
A general 3-G like on the Dippemess is not possible. ”The TCF wants to develop a concept by the end of September.
For example, one-way street regulations and 3-G or 2-G rules for lingering areas or interiors would be possible.
Dippemess has provided empirical values, which, according to the current state of knowledge, has once again confirmed Frankfurt's courageous approach to dealing with events or the opening of swimming pools, which has been comparably courageous since the beginning of the pandemic. There are no indications that any infection events could have been located on the festival area in front of the ice rink on Ratsweg. Among the so far not fully vaccinated employees of the showmen, who, like the visitors, had to undergo a test before each access to the site, there was, for example, not a single positive result, as Feda and the health department say. Accordingly, none of the 91 stands had to close or dismantle prematurely.
That should also encourage smaller communities with mostly only two to three-day Advent markets.
There are clear signals from Bad Vilbel, Neu-Isenburg and Friedrichsdorf that markets or an ice rink are planned.
Other cities like Bad Nauheim are still postponing the decision.
There has already been a rejection from Dreieich.
There, however, the trade association as an organizer was in a different location than a municipality.
In Frankfurt-Höchst, however, the Christmas market and the castle festival are canceled because the German Foundation for Monument Protection does not make the grounds at the castle available to the club as an organizer due to corona.