It's carnival time!

It’s carnival time!

The carnival season in Oberursel got into full swing on Saturday morning to shouts of “Hellau!” when Princess Sabine I., accompanied by supporters, majorettes, musicians and couple of canons, made her way from the old town hall around the Marktplatz and through the town to the new town hall, where she challenged the mayor to hand over the keys and put her in charge of things until Ash Wednesday.

However the mayor, Hans-Georg Brum, and his associates were not giving up without a fight, especially to the first ever carnival Princess that the town has seen. From over the parapet of his fortress he gave as good as he got, and even sent out his own canon – filled with confetti.

Sabine was assisted by the Pascal and Leoni, the “Kinderprinzenpaar”, the latter of whom had particular fun telling her uncle “Hansi” to surrender.

And surrender he did, but not before the canon and been fired several more times and a point had been made that although the princess may rule the town for the next 10 days, there is no money left in the treasury for her to spend. Although there was obviously just enough left to provide everyone in the crown with a chocolate-coated marshmallow each as the poured into the town hall foyer.

In the coming week many of the carnival clubs in the town will be holding their own events, before they all come together again for the main procession on Sunday, 10th February, which starts in the Altkönigstraße at 2.11pm, before crossing the Marktplatz into the Eppsteinerstraße and then taking a new route across the Epinayplatz instead of going though the pedestrian zone. This step has become necessary for safety reasons, due to the number of people watching the procession and the narrow width of some of the streets. At the Epinayplatz there will be a stage with “Die Schüssel” providing the commentary, along with a variety of food stalls. The procession then continues along the Henchenstraße before turning into the Liebfrauenstraße and then into the Adenauerallee, Aumühlenstraße, Austraße and finishing at the rear of the town hall.