The 56th Annual Büdesheimer Laternenfest (lantern festival) officially ended yesterday. I have to say that we are both a bit sad because it was a whole lot of fun – and we were amazed at the amount of effort this little town put into the event…not to mention the fact that so many locals seem to celebrate during the entire event. For that reason, I’m going to break up the posts about this event into a few separate posts because the event just warrants it! 🙂

The fest, held every year during the first weekend of August, begins on Friday evening when last years festival queen passes the crown to the new queen. This year we have Meike I sitting in the throne.

A big party follows after the new queen, in addition to other queens and kings from neighboring local festivals, parade down the main street and into the festival grounds. We just happened to be on the street when this happened on Friday because we were hoping to go eat a few steaks with Stefan’s parents at one of the local restaurants. But they were closed for the weekend because of the fest so we got to try out another local place – which happens to back the festival grounds…which is only about 5 minutes walk from our house.

At the fest grounds one can find the usual small carnival rides like bumper cars, a shooting gallery and other fun places to lose money and candy vendors. There is also a big tent set up for everyone to come and enjoy a few bands, beer and food in typical German fest fashion.

After dinner at Zum Elch (The Elk), which turned out to be rather good, we decided to try out another local place which is just across the street from us, the Büdesheimer Weinstube (wine bar).

The place has a great ambiance although they could really benefit from a slightly better wine menu…so we may have to go there more often and start giving some tips. Our dogs already like each other so that’s a plus. But the owner actually didn’t recognize us without her despite us spending 30 minutes on a walk together the week before…so it goes I guess.

The town really took on a party feeling the minute the festivities started and we loved it. Although we hadn’t really participated in anything yet, it gave us a great mood for our own upcoming party and we just loved the way the whole town of about 3,000 people seemed to be coming together as one to celebrate.