“The Queen is dead – long live the Queen!” might not have been the most subtle way of telling Vanessa I. that her reign as Fountain Queen (Brunnenkönigin) had come to an end, but it was with these words that Charmaine Weisenbach took the coronation ceremony from a carnival atmosphere back to the middle ages.

The evening had started with a performance of “We want to entertain you” by members of the “Academy of Stage Arts”, and entertain us they did with performances of hits like “Voulez Vos coucher avec moi” and “Time Warp”, but it was the topical performances by two completely different groups of performers that signalled the end of Vanessa’s year and the start of her successors, with Annabel’s identify being kept for almost the first two hours.

To see Vanessa off, the “Garde” (similar to majorettes) of the Bommersheim Carnival Club (BCV) performed one piece after another, starting with the youngest children and going from one age group to the next.

Before long, it was time for Vanessa to hold her last speech as Fountain Queen.  As ever, she spoke in rhyme.  “Nun vorbei ist meine Zeit, die neue Königin steht bereit” she concluded (my time is over, the new Queen is standing by). [Read more…]