Full disclosure.  Although Bill and I have lived in the Stuttgart for over five years of our married life (07-09 and 14-?), today was our first time ever visiting the spring fest in Stuttgart.  To be honest, I think we were taken aback by our very first “fest” experience in 2007.  It took us another 9 years to do another.

I think we’ve found that we like going on Sunday afternoons.  I think Bill figures that’s going to be less busy… however, when we’ve gone on Sundays, there has been ample entertainment.  I mainly like to go for the beer, the fabulous chicken, and watching all the drunk people.  Although I am not averse to getting drunk myself, I don’t generally get as messed up as some of the young folks do.  And today, we wound up in the young folks’ tent.

Actually, our trip started out a little bit stressful. I noticed on the train in Herrenberg that, unlike a lot of other people the previous fall, I was wearing Trachten and no one else was.  Add in the very obnoxious Middle Eastern looking lady who appeared to be taking pictures and texting, and you might realize how paranoid I was.  And then I saw on Facebook that one of the tents supposedly didn’t open until 5:00pm.  I needn’t have worried, though.  Plenty of people were wearing dirndls and lederhosen… and it was not hard to find a tent in the afternoon.

We got to the Dinkelacker tent at about 1:30pm or so… Honestly, I don’t know.  We sat at an empty bench, fanned ourselves a bit (it’s warmer in the spring), and ordered a couple of Maß Krugs of beer.  Then we had our traditional chicken and rolls…  Below are some photos from the festivities, which continue until May 13th this year.  We actually decided to go today because next weekend, we will be in France.  Now I see we could have postponed!

Goofy photo… and the nicest one of me today.  

Always good to know.  There is a WC very close to the train station.  

A few rides.  I used to like rides.

It wasn’t too busy when we arrived.

That chicken is so good! 

We found seats near the stage, although signs warned us that the benches were reserved from 5pm.  Honestly, I would rather party in the afternoon.  You have plenty of time to recover until it’s time to work again.

As time wore on, things got a little wilder…

But it was still pretty calm at this point.

Uh oh… people are busting loose!  By this point, I was becoming less pissy myself.

Hip bumping!

The lady in the blue dirndl was making eyes at the guy playing guitar…

Every time I think I might want a mini-dirndl, it occurs to me that maybe I’d rather not have my gams on display… but this lady had nice thighs.

 

One last shot before we left…

And a few shots of the crowd before we made our way to the train…

And the ride back to Herrenberg from Bad Cannstatt was not too bad… and no one took pictures and texted.  If I write a strange short story on my main blog in the next month or so, you’ll know why.

 

If you want to get a feel for the fest, watch the video.  It’s totally unedited, recorded on an iPhone (because my purse won’t accommodate my big camera), and will give you an idea of what happens from about 12:30 or 1:00 until about 5:00pm.  If you’re bringing kids, it may be especially valuable viewing.  If I’d had my camera, the film would be better.  But I have ordered a new purse, which means fewer iPhone films.