Carnival - A fantastic time!

Every year, tens of thousands of gays and lesbians from all over the world travel to Cologne for CSD (Christopher Street Day). However, Carnival also attracts many homosexuals to the city. Marie-Luise Nikuta, the uncrowned “Motto Queen“, was already making guest appearances in the ballrooms of the gay leather crowd in the 1970s.

Up to the nineties, the official Cologne carnival festival committee was still a bit shy of the gays and lesbians, but now the carnival officials have acquired a taste for the clowning around of the carnivalcrazed homo-revellers. The “Dreigestirn” (the principal Carnival figures), made up of a Prince, a Peasant and a (traditionally male) Virgin, has already visited gay and lesbian “Sitzungen” (carnival sessions) on four occasions and each time was overwhelmed by the thunderous reception it received.

Even before the street carnival festivities approach their traditional peak, the carnival societies are already hard at work, getting off to an early start with their pre-parade “Sitzungen”, with the assistance of the Cologne Community. The crew of the small “Röschensitzung” in the Kulturbunker in Mülheim introduces the “Asia Weeks”, while the legendary “Gloria-Sitzung” this year kicks off with “Safari Aloha” in the jungle. A debutant in recent years, the cosy “Schnittchensitzung”, invites lady-loving carnival-goers to the Altenberg Hof.

Breathtaking costume balls have also become a longstanding tradition of the “crazy season”. “For a night full of bliss”, returns to the Mülheimer Stadthalle on Carnival Saturday, hosted by the Rosa Funken, founded twelve years ago as the first gay carnival vanguard. The “StattGarde Colonia Ahoj“, Cologne’s only mixed carnival society currently consisting of over 130 gays, lesbians and heteros, will be inviting everyone to the “Jeck op Deck” event in the Alter Wartesaal for the fourth time on 12th January.

Starting on Weiberfastnacht (Women’s Carnival), the “Fastelovend” (as the “Fifth Season” is called in Cologne) will take over public life for six days. Even the most diehard carnival sourpusses cannot avoid listening to the traditional Cologne songs being sung in the community pubs, meaning the “kölsch” lyrics are quickly learnt by all. When the parade starts on Rose Monday, nearly the entire Hohe Pforte will be in the hands of gays and lesbians: Hour after hour, „Funkenmariechen” (dancing girls), „Tambourcorps“ (drummers), floats and ”Reitergarden” (mounted corps) strut past the boisterous homos vying to catch the “Kamelle” (sweets) and “Strüssjer” (small flower bouquets) thrown into the crowd. The opportunity to flirt pulsates in good spirit between the carnivalists and the rejoicing spectators.

The “Bermuda Triangle” on Rudolfplatz in particular, but also the Old Town will once again be bursting at the seams on Shrove Tuesday.

What is important now is enjoying it as much as you can because, as the saying goes, it’s all over on Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, each year’s carnival season is burned at midnight in the form of a “Nubbel”. This “Nubbel”, a straw doll wearing a costume, is to make amends for all the sins committed during the “crazy days” – and that makes for a lot of sin...

The purified sinners then get ready to return for the next season, because anyone who has ever made it through the gay and lesbian carnival once will always look forward to the next “fantastic time”!