Diekirch – Carnival Cavalcade

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to see the Carnival Cavalcade in Diekirch, Luxembourg. This was such a fun and unique experience. There are about 100 photos in today’s post, so this will be a long one.

Getting there

I started my day by accidentally sleeping until noon. Thanks, rolladen and jet lag! I sprang from bed, got dressed as quickly as possible and grabbed my things, before running out to catch the train. We’re a little outside town, so I have to take a bus to the train station. There was, unfortunately, only 5 minutes to get from the bus to the train, once I got to the central station, and I didn’t quite get there on time. The next train was in half an hour, so I had a coffee and pastry from the Oberweiss in the train station. I had a merengue covered in chocolate and hazelnuts. When the train finally arrived, it was clear I was in the right place. Costumed revelers filled the platform and the train, as it quickly became standing-room only. Off we went for the hour-long ride to Diekirch.

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Arriving in Diekirch

I arrive and follow the crowd to the parade route. The area is cordoned off and there is a small entry fee. I buy a ticket and start walking the reverse parade route. After another sleepless night of waking up at 2 a.m. and not being able to sleep until 6 or 7, I was not looking great. And having woken at noon and only just had my coffee, I neither looked nor felt like partying. However, I tried to get into the spirit of things, and stopped at a booth selling cremant. Very festive. Within 5 minutes, I encounter the head of the parade, so I stop on the sidewalk and make camp.

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There are lots of people, but lots of space, so the crowd is never more than 2-3 people deep on the sidewalk. There are no barricades. Everyone just stays out of the streets, but crosses between groups. This makes for a very pleasant experience. Lots of people are dressed up, though there is no particular theme. About 75% of the people in costume are wearing animal onesie pajamas or opposuits.

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The Parade – Act 1

On to the parade. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that this parade had 3 distinctly different sections. I didn’t know that when we started, so I’ll take you on this adventure with me.

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I visited Diekirch on my last trip, and have a real fondness for the town. This is the quaint, quirky Luxembourg version of Mayberry. And the parade started out exactly how you’d expect a small-town parade to go: marching bands and majorettes and costumes and candy. And then there were more marching bands. And more majorettes. And more people passing out candy.

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One of the things I found most interesting about this part of the parade was that, this wasn’t all of the local high school bands. These were clubs and hobbyists. There were adults and teenagers and little tiny children participating. I found this very endearing and imagined how many things I’d do if I were here. I would definitely march in a band one year. And join a majorette club and do that sometime. I’d make costumes and learn choreography. There was even a group of witches who came by and hit people in the head with brooms. I’m certain I would do that one year, too. Yes, it was so fun to see people of all ages participating and to feel like these things are still available to you, and didn’t end at high school.

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However, with that, there’s the other side. Everyone is here to have fun. There are no marching band competitions to get to next weekend. There isn’t a twirl-off you’re training for and this parade is an inconvenience. This has the distinct advantage over high school band of being legitimately fun. But it has the disadvantage of being particularly undisciplined. But that, too, is comforting. You don’t have to be perfect. All are welcome, just as they are. It doesn’t matter that you aren’t always in step or you miss a note or drop your baton. No one is yelling at you afterwards. It’s just a parade and it’s just for fun. I really enjoyed the vibe of this whole thing.

Every marching band had costumes, not band uniforms. And all the groups of majorettes had matching costumes. And the dancing groups had costumes. It was a nice, relaxing, fun parade, and I enjoyed my cremant while watching the festivities.

Parade – Act 2

But suddenly and without warning, the mood of the entire parade shifted. From cute small-town marching bands to suddenly hearing amplified music heading my way, I could feel the rumbling of change.

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All of a sudden, the costumes are now huge elaborate dresses. There are people with flames on scepters getting the crowd amped up. Vibrant colors and loud music and vigorous dancing take center stage. We have reached the Cape Verde and Brazillian-inspired portion of Carnival.

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Now, I know I’m a sucker for costumes, but these dresses were amazing. And these ladies really enjoyed dancing and twirling and interacting with the crowd. There was so much energy. Then there was a group of people who were dancing in costumes that were… a nod… to Brazilian costumes, but also, fully acknowledging that February is winter time in Europe. They had full unitards on, that were then decorated with beads and embellishments.

Parade – Act 3

As quickly as they arrived, the dancers were gone. There were only 3 or 4 groups here, but they were super fun. Now, on to the youth. The final part of the parade, which was about 2.5 of the 4 hours of parading, was comprised of floats and marching revelers from the Land Jugend from pretty much every city in Luxembourg. I am unfamiliar with what the Land Jugend are, other than the literal translation of ‘Country Youth’ – or Luxembourgish youth. The people marching in the parade seemed to be mostly teenagers, late high school/early college age. This is where the parade got crazy.

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Every town has a float. The floats are all decorated with different themes, usually pop culture, but also sometimes political mockery. On each float, there are a bunch of teenagers. They are drinking, throwing candy and confetti into the crowd, dancing. And then marching behind each float is another group of kids just partying. Almost every float has a few kegs on board, and they fill plastic cups with beer and distribute them to the crowd. The people marching on foot follow behind the float, carrying racks of beer to share with everyone. A few of the floats even had wine or cremant, but always sharing with whoever wants a glass.

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Culturally, the free sharing of alcohol is so taboo where I’m from that this is a strange and exciting sight. What a novel idea: alcohol isn’t really that big of a deal. Drinking in public isn’t a huge deal. It seems both radical and obvious.

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This part of the parade was actually only slightly more raucous. The crowd was entirely polite the entire day. No one fought over catching candy. No one fought over glasses of beer or wine. (This is in stark contrast to going to a parade in New Orleans where everyone fights over those cheap beads that they will end up throwing away later anyway). The youth partied and drank and smoked and danced, but no one was sloppy (at least, not yet). They wrestled and threw confetti. They had unrestrained fun. It was honestly pretty idyllic.

When the final parade float passed by, everyone who had been watching the parade was now following behind the end of it, and there was a crush of people. I got swept up in it for a minute, but quickly made my way to a side street to let everyone pass.

After the parade

Not wanting to jam onto the train with thousands of people, I decided to go walk around the town a bit before heading to the train station. Ideally, I would have grabbed some dinner, but every restaurant and bar had converted to outdoor party space and there were DJs on every corner and all those Land Jugen were dancing in the streets. So much energy. I, on the other hand, was already feeling the muscles in my legs tighten from the cold, and decided to head home.

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Of course, no trip to Europe would be complete without me breaking a train. So as I stand there, waiting for the train, the announcement comes on that the train has had technical difficulties and will not be arriving at all. They instruct us to take a bus to Ettelbruck and take the train from there. Such is life. So I go wait for the bus. This plan worked fine, though, and I was able to catch a train in Ettelbruck and only get home about half an hour later than I would have on the other train. But I got back to the house and my wonderful hosts had prepared and amazing dinner and we sat and ate and I shared my experiences from the day.