T he 27. Samba festival was in a way also a premiere: for the first time christof pilarzyk was no longer part of the organizing team. The co-founder withdrew for health reasons and was not even present at the 2018 festival. "I couldn't handle it, it's all still too emotional", he had already explained in advance. While he had therefore fled to lower bavaria for the weekend, the sole responsibility now rested on rolf beyersdorf.
Beyersdorf takes it easy
He took everything very casually as usual. "We are a rough samba team", beyersdorf said and meant with that: we are a rough samba family that sticks together and always finds a solution when problems arise. No sooner said than done: on samba saturday there was a lot of excitement. The members of the colombian group aainjaa were angry and planned to leave early. What had happened? "They didn't know that they would need sleeping mats and sleeping bags to spend the night in one of our school quarters", tells rolf beyersdorf. And they did not have anything like that with them. But without these utensils, sleep is out of the question, so the sudamerican sambistas looked for a hotel – far away from coburg, and with the idea of going home on saturday anyway. "That was a communication problem, says rolf beyersdorf. When the organizers heard about the problem, the strong members of the "samba family" immediately took action a. "We were able to organize tens of covers and documents through the red cross", rolf beyersdorf "just one call is enough, and that's what i've come to love about samba in coburg: so many people help to make the festival a success." In the concrete case this meant: the colombians moved into their quarters in a school on saturday with the help of the red cross utensils – and already in the afternoon they had an acclaimed performance at the festival.
Julia prillwitz also had a problem on saturday. The 42-year-old brazilian, who caused a furor with her book about her life as a transsexual woman, came to the festival spontaneously. But where should she sleep? It's a good thing that the landhotel steiner in grobheirath also belongs to the samba family. There julia prillwitz could still be accommodated.
Autographs and selfies
Another celebrity spotted on saturday was pia riegel. The 22-year-old from munich had been a contestant on the 2018 season of "germany's next top model" third place taken. Some young fans recognized pia so that she was allowed to sign autographs and pose for selfies.
Not quite as well known, but somewhat more important, is mario vilalva. The brazilian ambassador was already in coburg for the festival opening on friday evening. On saturday he was shown the veste by city councilors max beyersdorf and jurgen heeb. And because the "time travel" event was taking place there just that weekend mario vilalva got to see quite a bit of the action. There were medieval demonstrations on the castle ramparts, and there was always a loud crash – from a cannon, for example. "The ambassador was impressed, he later told max beyersdorf and added with a wink: "we told him that we organized all this only because of him!"
Discussion about soder-visit
Markus soder was also a guest. The appearance of the prime minister on friday, however, divided opinion. Some were enthusiastic about how close to the people he was; spontaneously he had taken a stroll around the festival grounds. Others criticized the soder visit, which culminated in the awarding of a home prize to the organizer. Ina sinterhauf (grune) wrote on facebook: "at a festival that lives cosmopolitanism, a minister-president who wants to close borders awards a home prize – somehow ironic."
By the way: during his walk across the festival grounds markus soder was visibly in a good mood. When he met coburg's mayor norbert tessmer (SPD) at the town hall, he buried him with the words: "ah, the samba sociologist!"
So the "samba-nini": nini beyersdorf, wife of rolf beyersdorf, was the top act on the schlossplatz stage on saturday evening. The terra brazil show was driving and great. And exactly at this point it is necessary to quote from a letter that festival guest oana nechiti (known from the RTL show "let's dance") sent to nini beyersdorf on saturday. "You are an enrichment", wrote oana nechiti "we need more people like you! Already to have met you." It seems that the samba family has grown by another member.