Above the village of kirchehrenbach rises the entrance to the french switzerland, visible from afar. It is a table mountain, which is called the walberla. It is always held on the first weekend in may and has been mentioned in documents since the 14th century. Century, probably the most rustic french mountain festival takes place.
The origins of the walberlafest lie in a pilgrimage and a fair that was held on the mountain plateau. In the past, it was almost a must for the student associations from erlangen to walk to the walberla and have a big party there, but this mountain festival already had a special attraction.
Electricity for a small town
Intensive preparations have been underway for some time to cope with the influx of visitors. The municipality is the place where you have to apply for and pick up your driveway permit.
The parking spaces need to be marked and the building yard has to implement the legal traffic inspections. The associations have to fill the service tarp with volunteers, order drinks, provide a beer bar, tents, heaters and much more.
The boss of "imbiss romer believes that for its sales stands in peak times ca. 60 kva needs. This is about as much as the whole of kirchehrenbach needs in one afternoon. All in all, he believes that the power consumption of the entire festival site can be equated to that of a small town.
He is equipped with a sufficiently coarse aggregate and can also supply a few small customers. The two langosch stands koppitz and ullrich as well as lochner from the wolfshoher tavern will also supply the riders with the necessary power for light, cooling and other needs. The resulting tangle of wires will probably still be heard several kilometers away.
15 types of beer will be officially served at the walberla this year, ranging from breweries in forchheim to beer from pretzfeld, leutenbach, neunkirchen, lohndorf and buttenheim, breitenlesau and kulmbach. Mischievously, however, heinrich lochner explained that he had not seen the 16. Beer, an original brauhaus forchheim beer, brewed at wolfshoher, but according to an old brewery recipe and above all with forchheim water.
50 sales outlets
Of course, in addition to the drinks, there are also sausages, fish and other snacks, as well as stands with gingerbread hearts or fine homemade cakes and kuchla at a total of 50 sales points.
Cakes can and may not be offered at the festival site for reasons of food law. Many visitors are driven up the steep hill only by the knowledge of a good snack and the first sip of beer. Because before the pleasure comes the effort. You already have to walk to fub to the festlande.
Gebhardt taps the barrel
since the 1. This year may falls on a thursday, the festivities were unceremoniously extended. So you can already have your may hike to the walberla driven, because there will be food and drinks offered until 19 o'clock.
But the real start is friday. On 2. May from 5 pm the maypole will be put up by the kirchehrenbacher heimatfreunde and the kerwasbuschen. Then follows the beer tapping, which is the privilege of mayor anja gebhardt (SPD).
In addition give the "ehrabocher musikanten" a stand concert. This is the only time that music will be played at the walberlafest.
After that the "ehrabocher staudla" will present their show, the children's dance group of the "heimatfreunde", the visitors still old french dances. Traditionally, the local visitors make their beer tasting afterwards. In the meantime, they are increasingly supported by foreign visitors. But at 11 p.M. It's time to head home. Then the innkeepers stop serving the beer. On saturday the festival will run between 10 am and 11 pm. On sunday the innkeepers are waiting from 9 a.M. Onwards.30 and also until 11 p.M. On guests. However, experience has shown that on sundays the vast majority of bars are closed and dismantled early in the evening.
On sunday at 9.30 a.M. There will also be a liturgy in the walburgis chapel.
Municipality appeals to visitors
The community of kirchehrenbach is happy about every single visitor who comes to the walberlafest.
She nevertheless asks everyone to keep the mountain, which is after all a nature reserve, clean and if possible to take the garbage home again or to throw it into the garbage bins that have been set up. Furthermore, the municipality asks the visitors to stay on the designated paths and not to trample the meadows. Also, the visitors should only use the toilets and not use the forest as an alternative.
Limited parking
Parking has often caused visitors some headaches. Limited parking is available at the train station and at the county parking lot opposite the restaurant "zum walberla".
Parking on the few access roads can be expensive, because in this case the work of rescue teams is made more difficult. The best is probably, the visitors leave their vehicles in forchheim or ebermannstadt and change there on the public transport. Who likes and dares it, can also still kirchehrenbach hike.
Since the mountain is closed from the county parking lot, a shuttle cab will take interested visitors from the train station to the former upper parking lot and back again. Stops are the train station, village square, gas station, county parking lot and the former upper parking lot below the fest land. From there you have to go to fub on the mountain. This usually takes between ten and 20 minutes.
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