650 Years of Amberg Fests

In true Bavarian fashion, a city earns its stripes only when they have their own local fests. 650 years ago, elector Ruprecht I (aka "The Red") gave this right to Amberg.

Photo Credit: Amberger Congress Centrum

To give you a sense of how important these rights were, Ruprecht "The Red" had this on Elector to-do list 22 years ahead of starting the University of Heidelberg! And to put it in perspective for other Americans, the people of Amberg were celebrating the summer season with cold beers and music before Columbus even sailed the ocean blue.
So how do Amberg's 40,000+ citizens celebrate such an important anniversary? With a particularly special kick-off to the Amberg fest season, of course!
This weekend, I had the privilege of seeing the opening ceremonies for the 650th Amberg Dult (aka "carnival" or "fair" in English). Though the Dultplatz (fairground) is actually about a mile down the Vils River, the fest started early Friday evening with free beer from the local brewery, Kummert Bräu. If they were handing out free beer in the city center of any American town, there would likely be a full-fledged mob; however, the people of Amberg were sipping on the special 650-year-anniversary brew as if it were any other day. Needless to say, I was enthused.

Freibier (Free beer is easy to translate!)

After the music stopped, 60 people, eight kegs, two tubas, and a basket full of pretzels loaded on two long boats for the trip down the river. The music played as people sipped on freshly tapped beer. They unloaded at the Dultplatz and set up for the evening tapping of the first Dult keg. After several hours, the whole city enjoyed a 15-minute fireworks show signaling the start of Dult week.
If you are around Amberg, the Kummert Bräu free beer cart has been spotted since: they were playing music and handing out fresh, cold beer at 10:00 am in the marktplatz the next morning. I recommend keeping an eye out for it! More importantly, the Amberg Dult runs through June 15th at the Dultplatz on Bruno-Hofer-Straße.

For those of you who are not able to make it to the Dult fest, this is just the first of three fests that were granted to the city of Amberg 650 years ago. There is still plenty of time to catch the Mariahilfbergfest from June 28 through July 6, the Altstadtfest July 19 & 20, or the fall Dult September 26 - October 5.