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***image1***Harvest time in Germany is also wine fest time. One of the highlights of the wine fest season is the annual German Wine Harvest Fest being celebrated in Neustadt along the German Wine Street Thursday through Oct. 13.
The German Wine Harvest Fest is considered the vintners’ Thanksgiving. For more than 50 years, regional vintners celebrate the event after they finish their work in the vineyards and wine cellars for the old season. Now the new season with new wine starts.
The traditional fest is well-known for the little reconstructed wine village set up across from the Neustadt train station, the election of the Palatinate and German wine queens, the carnival and the biggest vintners’ parade in Germany.
The wine village is made of little framework houses called “Haiselscher,” (Palatinate dialect meaning little houses) and booths, where local wines and food specialties are sold.
A typical season specialty offered is “Zwiebelkuchen,” onion cake. It is similar to Quiche Lorraine and is customarily served with “Federweisser,” the first new wine for that year. “Federweisser” has a cloudy color and tastes more like grape juice than wine, containing less alcohol. It is still fermenting and after a few weeks, loses its sweetness.
Radio station RPR1 will hold a party at 6 p.m. Thursday to open the event and will present the four candidates for the election of the 70th Palatinate Wine Queen. Live party music will follow from 7 to 11 p.m. on the stage near the Haiselscher. Each day, different bands and singers will present different music styles on RPR1 stage.
A carnival with rides and a fest tent will be near the wine village. Sunday shopping will be available from 1 to 6 p.m. Oct. 5. Family Day with reduced prices is scheduled for Oct. 8.
Neustadt’s Hetzelplatz will turn into a giant wine probe location at 7 p.m. Oct. 9. The “German Wine and Champagne Meeting Point,” made of little pavilions, will lure visitors who want to sample wines from the nine wine villages belonging to Neustadt and from the other 13 wine-growing regions in Germany through Oct. 13.
The highlight of the wine harvest fest is the 99th vintners’ parade with more than 100 floats, bands, walking groups, costume groups and the Palatinate and German wine queens at 2 p.m. Oct. 12. City officials expect more than 100,000 visitors.
The fest will close out with a fireworks display at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 13.
For details, visit www.neustadt.eu.
The German railroad company, Deutsche Bahn, offers trains going from Kaiserslautern to Neustadt and back every half-hour. The ticket for groups of one to five people is available for €14 at the ticket machines in the train station. If you park your vehicle in the parking garage behind the train station, which costs €6 for the day, a reduction of €1.50 is granted if you present your parking and train ticket at the Servicepoint or the travel center in the Kaiserslautern Train Station.
