Martin Blume is not easy to shock because of his job.
He runs the ghost train "Daemonium", one of the biggest attractions of the Spring Dippemess, which begins this Friday and lasts until May 1st.
But even away from 3D animated or classically moving bogeys, the showman keeps his cool when he talks about the troubles of his work in preparation.
Fifteen loads were needed to get the ghost train on the spot.
Enormous costs, with which he had to pay in advance despite all the remaining doubts about Corona.
And that after two years with almost no sales.
Daniel Meuren
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
Follow I follow
Now his ghost train is on the fairground and he enthusiastically reports on the three-minute ride over four levels.
“We have state-of-the-art elements that create surprises.
But we don't glorify violence," he says.
Instead, the latest craze is a step backwards, so to speak: "live scarers," as Blume calls them.
“Real people who see the visitors beforehand and then frighten them individually.
When a small child starts driving at the elderly grandfather, he is more cautious about the matter.
When the 12 to 16-year-old young savages come, we heat them up more.”
Blume's confidence, without which one cannot run this business, can be seen in his cheerful eyes.
He has been coming to Frankfurt again and again for decades.
He used to cause astonished looks as a steep face climber until he injured himself in action.
Now he even wants to get into the Guinness Book of Records with his "Daemonium" because it is the largest mobile ghost train in the world.
Enterprising people like him are needed in an industry whose existence seemed threatened by Corona.
"We are underestimated"
Many have already sung their tune at folk festivals and predicted insolvencies and company closures in an industry in which there are no lateral entrants.
“The showman profession is inherited from generation to generation.
If someone gives up, nobody can follow them from anywhere,” says Thomas Roie, himself a fifth-generation showman.
As chairman of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main showmen's association, he is happy that almost all of the more than 100 companies in his region have survived the difficult two years.
The showmen are very grateful for the state aid that would have saved livelihoods.
This is one of the reasons why they are now making particular efforts not to pass on the current price increases to customers.
Energy prices, delivery problems, shortage of spare parts burden the showmen, as well as Alex Schramm,
Operator of the ride "Break Dancer" says.
"Everyone, not just us showmen, who has to do with bearings, oils and sprockets has spare parts problems," he says.
It is all the more important for Roie to point out the often underestimated economic factor.
From the small crêpes stand to the fairground ride that costs millions to buy, it's all about real entrepreneurs.
“We are underestimated there,” he says.
"But we give a city a lot, and that's why we can also demand something from the cities."
it's about real entrepreneurs.
“We are underestimated there,” he says.
"But we give a city a lot, and that's why we can also demand something from the cities."
it's about real entrepreneurs.
“We are underestimated there,” he says.
"But we give a city a lot, and that's why we can also demand something from the cities."
Thomas Feda, Managing Director of Tourismus und Congress Frankfurt (TCF), the host of Dippemess', supports Roie's words by referring to a turnover of more than eight million euros, which will be achieved in the next three and a half weeks with a carefully calculated 750,000 visitors on the 21st opening days should be generated.
A good thousand people earned their living here during this time.
Feda speaks about the folk festival at a height of 45 meters on the Ferris wheel of the Willenborg showman family.
From up there you first recognize the dimensions of the Dippemess' and see that the fairground is reaching its limits.
The showmen's mobile homes are close together.
"When someone gets out of his, he's practically in the living room of the neighbors," says Feda.
Decisions would have to be made immediately: He refers to the necessary modernization of power lines,
points to the many puddles on the festival grounds, where holes have to be filled up again and again so that the visitors can walk on the site reasonably comfortably.
But the decision-making process has come to a standstill because of the considerations of locating the European School:
A showman like Alex Schramm doesn't want to worry about this problem at the moment.
“Everything is still going well here on the fairground and we are satisfied,” he says.
"We are full of euphoria that we finally have our lives back after Corona."