STUTTGART – GERMAN CITY
OF FESTIVALS
Beer and Wine Party Town for All Seasons
Germans
love a good festival. The serious and direct culture of precise engineering
and strait-laced
social custom
look for about any excuse
to let their hair down and party. For the tourist much of Stuttgart’s
historic central old town architecture was destroyed in WWII so the city
has a modern feel and relies on throwing a good party to attract locals
and out-of towners. Cologne has its Karnival (see Cologne
Karnival Crazy Days)
and Stuttgart has its version as well, Munich has its Starkebierziet
(see Munich
Strong Beer Season) and of course Oktoberfest (see Oktoberfest
Family Carnival), but
Stuttgart seems to almost never be without one, a festival for all seasons.
CANSTATTER VOLKSFEST September - October
Stuttgart’s
version of Oktoberfest, the Canstatter Folk Festival, one big party
of carnival rides, beer drinking
and music takes palace in the city’s
fairground, the Canstatter Wasen
near the Daimler Football Stadium and Mercedes factory (see Mercedes
Benz Museum). This autumn beer festival
is actually larger than its more famous cousin in Munich. Beginning at
the end of September and running for sixteen days, the giant festival
fairground is filled with several hundred
attractions, beer tents holding up to 5,000 thirsty canstatters,
drinking beer, eating roast
chicken and standing on tables as a variety of bands play. 
The
Stuttgart beer festival is rather less ceremonial than the Bavarian version
of the fall harvest beer fest and
the food more Swabian, but you’ll have to sample both to know what
that means (a clue – less wheat gluten). The Stuttgart Volksfest
Festival was begun by King Wilhelm I and his Queen Katharina in 1818
after a famine
to celebrate
the harvest. They’re commemorated in the giant Fruit Pillar tower,
standing colorfully among the other giant Ferris Wheels and gut churning
rides.
FRULINGS FEST April – May
The
Spring Beer Festival the Stuttgart Frühlings Fest is essentially
the same as the fall folk beer fest, also held at the Canstatt Wasen
fairground – carnival rides, spook houses, beer drinking and singing
the familiar drinking songs to which all seem to know the words. The
spring festival starting at the end of April is not as large in number
of venues and attendance but actually goes on for a few days longer,
and easier to get a seat in a beer tent. One curious sight in the tents
and probably a good idea, is an attractive lass is a police uniform giving
breathalyzer tests (for a small fee) to partying guests ready to drive
home. But you needn’t drive to this big beer party, the festival
grounds is easily reached by streetcar rail line U11 or by bus line 56.
STUTTGARTER WEINDORF August - September
If
beer isn’t your imbibery
of choice, the end of summer bring the Stuttgart Wine Festival. For
two
weeks of wine tasting and eating,
booths of local wineries and food purveyors take up the streets in the
center of the city around the Schillerplatz in a temporary Wine Village.
250 wine varieties from the surrounding region (see GERMAN
WINE ROAD) can
be sampled. The food is primarily Swabian with characteristic onion
cakes and Swabian Pockets, roast chicken and pork. Less noisy that
the beer
festivals without the carnival rides and individual music artists,
the Wine Festival is more relaxed for wandering the aroma filled village
and making new friends over a glass of wine.
SUMMER FESTVAL August
The
wine fest follows the Stuttgart Summer Festival (Sommerfest). Only
lasting four days of a long weekend in August,
the Summer
Festival is a party of food
from over 30 gourmet restaurateurs in white tents in the downtown area
from the Opera to the Palace with the music of variety of bands
and entertainment groups held in
the
square
on
front
of the
old palace – Schlossplatz.
CHRISTMAS MARKET November - December
Not
to forget one of Germany’s
largest and oldest Christmas Markets also held downtown around the
Schlossplatz, opening on the last Thursday
of November, beginning with a concert in the inner courtyard of the Old
Schloss, with crafts booths open every day until December 23. The Stuttgart
Christmas Market is distinguished by its open air ice skating rink and
its “Fairy Tale Land” for children on the Schlossplatz. The
Huzelbrot fruit bread and mulled wine let you know you’re in Stuttgart’s
Christmas Market (see Germany’s
Big Christmas Markets). © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Volksfest
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See Also:
STUTTGART
MUSEUMS
SINSHEIM AUTO & TECHNIK MUSEUM
NEW UNITED-CONTINENTAL NON-STOP TO STUTTGART
STUTTGART WINE MUSEUM AND VINEYARD TRAILS
