Everything stays the same and yet feels new: After a long Corona break, the International Festival Hall Riding Tournament returns to its usual location from December 15th to 18th.

In the past two years, the organizers had to switch to the Schafhof in Kronberg and were only able to hold the tournament on a smaller scale and without spectators.

Julia Basic

sports editor.

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In November 2021, they were still confident that the move in 2020 would remain an exception and that everyone involved would not have to do without the special atmosphere of the Christmas festival hall again.

But the renewed lockdown forced the organizers to pull the emergency brake at short notice.

"This time we can be even more certain that things won't turn out like last year," said tournament director Matthias Alexander Rath at the press conference for the 49th edition of the tournament.

"Many things remain the same, which are important but not a matter of course," emphasized Rath and emphasized that not only had all previous sponsors remained loyal to the tournament, but that more had joined.

This made it possible to keep the prize money at the 2019 level.

There is a total of 375,300 euros up for grabs.

"This is an important sign because everything has become more expensive for the riders," said Rath, whose stepmother Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff always keeps an eye on the good cause of the event.

Also this year, donations for social projects in the region are to be collected as part of the tournament.

The sporting level should also build on that of 2019.

"The tournament has been one of the most important sporting events in Frankfurt for decades," said Linsenhoff.

"So I was all the happier at the Sports Press Ball in early November when the Frankfurt sports department head Mike Josef said to me: 'The tournament is one of Frankfurt's Big Four.'

And that’s where Eintracht counts.”

One of three five-star dressage competitions

At the start of the tournament, the Hessentag is on the program as usual, where athletes from the region get their chance to ride in the festival hall.

The highlight is the show competition of the Hessian riding clubs.

In the finals of the two dressage series Burg-Pokal and Louisdor-Prize as well as the youngster show-jumping, some of the best young horses in Germany will be on display.

The international tests are again held at three or five-star level, which not only attracts the best German riders, but also international stars.

"We are one of only three five-star dressage shows in Germany this year," said Rath, announcing that the starting field would be "fantastic".

In dressage, Bad Homburg's Sönke Rothenberger, team Olympic champion in Rio 2016, will compete for victory in the Louisdor Prize with his future hope, the young stallion Fendi.

His teammates from Rio, Dorothee Schneider from the co-organizer Frankfurt riding and tournament stable Schwarz-Gelb and the seven-time Olympic champion Isabell Werth also want to compete in the dressage arena – alongside the tournament director himself.

There are also the Danish team world champion Nanna Merrald Rasmussen and the Spaniard Juan Matute-Guimon.

In the show jumping there will probably be a few champions and nations cup riders at the start.

According to Rath, there have been inquiries from Marburg residents David Will and Richard Vogel, Sophie Hinners, Jana Wargers, Philipp Weishaupt and Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann.

Felix Haßmann, the German champion of 2019, who started in the Festhalle for the first time in 2008 and immediately took second place in the Grand Prix, will definitely be there.

He "certainly doesn't mind winning this time," he said, but apart from that, the Festhallen horse show is "simply a nice tournament with a great atmosphere."

What is certain is that the demand and enthusiasm of the spectators for the festival hall horse show is unbroken.

"29,000 tickets have already been sold, which is 16 percent more than in 2019 at this point in time," said Rath.

This number also includes some of the tickets purchased for the 2020 and 2021 tournaments.

“Buyers had the opportunity to return the tickets, but many kept them.

That shows that people are looking forward to the event and are sticking by us.” For comparison: In 2019, around 50,000 spectators came to the Festhalle over the four days of the tournament, said Rath.

"So we're on the right track."