Kinderfest

We went to a "Kinderfest und Maifest" today, at Anaheim. (Anaheim is mostly famous for having Disneyland, but it so happens that it was founded by German settlers - it means "Anna's House".)

I'm not sure of the exact translation of "Kinderfest und Maifest" but it probably means something like "Lots of fat old Germans sitting around getting pissed on Bavarian beer and playing music which involves tubas". Despite the emphasis on kinder, there wasn't much for kiddies to do. There were pony rides, and a petting zoo, which had some bedraggled looking sheep and goats, a couple of chickens, and several nervous rabbits, and a bouncy castle.

There was a large tent (the "Festhalle") which had lots of tables and benches, and a stage at one end, where the tuba players congregated. When the tuba players got tired, there was some sort of male voice choir - there was a lot of shouting at the crowd to stop talking, but only from the choir, not from anyone in the crowd.

After the choir, there was the singing of the national anthem - they sang the American anthem first, just to show whose side they were on, and then the German one. Next, came a lot of announcements which involved people going up to the stage for some reason - I don't think it was the raffle, but the acoustics were appalling, and I had no idea what was going on.

The whole place was run and organized by old German people, mainly for the benefit of old, German people. They sold soft drinks from the beer stalls, but the old men selling it seemed to have no understanding of, well anything to do with soft drinks. When drinks overflowed, or they served the wrong one (which was quite regular) they dumped it into the container of ice. I ordered a diet Coke (with no ice), and one turned to the other and said "Ho ho ho, zis man haz ze fonny acsunt!! Ho ho!! He say Coke!"

Anyway, we ate Reibepfannkuchen and Bienenstich and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte and drank Koestinger Schwarzbier. A parade went by, of people in various German dress, and then we left.

Oh, you'll want to see some photos, I suppose.

German fashion:



German ladeez:

A beer tent, with lots of German people with feathers in their caps:
This was kept at the back of the Reibepfannkuchen (potato pancakes, to you [probably] and I):
We've got a German flag, but we've got an American flag too, and it's higher. So that's OK. (And the one on the left is a California flag.)