Clubs, Music and Festivals: How Village Life Works in Hönningen

If you want to know how a village is doing, you do not need to read the population statistics. It is enough to walk past the clubhouse on a Tuesday evening and hear whether rehearsal is on. In Hönningen it is. People practice, haul, plan and argue, mostly after work, mostly unpaid, often the same people. That is the real engine of a place this size, which is why it gets a page of its own here.

The Hönningen Wind Band

Brass band music has a long tradition in the Ahr Valley and the Eifel, and it is more than entertainment. The wind band plays at church occasions, processions, anniversaries, funerals and, of course, at the village festival. Anyone who has seen a village go quiet because a chorale is being played understands why that cannot be replaced. Musically the repertoire runs from traditional marches through polka and waltz to modern arrangements, mostly contributed by the younger members. Rehearsals are regular, and as everywhere: whoever can play an instrument or wants to learn is welcome. Joining is possible even as an adult, which is rarely believed.

Recruiting new members is the permanent task. Traditionally it runs through school band classes, through contact with the school and through older members who take beginners by the hand. Instruments are often provided by the club so nobody fails at the purchase. A new tenor horn quickly costs more than a used car, and no family can casually shoulder that.

The Fanfare Corps

Besides the wind band, Hönningen has the fanfare corps. Sonically it is something else entirely: fanfares, natural-tone instruments, drums, a distinctive, bright sound that works outdoors. Such corps in the Rhineland are closely tied to carnival and parades, but also perform on their own. At the village festival for the inauguration of the bypass road, the fanfare corps took over the music on Sunday afternoon.

The Carnival Society and Dance Guards

In this region carnival is not a costume night but an organizational feat that stretches over months. Sessions have to be prepared, speeches written, sets built and dances rehearsed. The dance guards train all year for it, and the effort is considerable: choreography, lifts, fitness, costumes. What looks like five minutes of lightness in the end is dozens of training evenings. At performances outside the season, for instance at the village festival, you can see how large an audience the guards draw.

The carnival society is also one of the most important social hubs in the village. Generations meet here who would otherwise have little contact. A fourteen-year-old builds a float with a seventy-year-old, and both learn something. Such pairings do not arise automatically in a village; they need an occasion.

Volunteer Fire Brigade and Youth Fire Brigade

The volunteer fire brigade is the club people talk about least and would miss most. In a valley with steep slopes, narrow streets and a river that can rise fast, a brigade ready for action is no formality. Call-outs range from traffic accidents through storm damage and oil spills to technical assistance. And then there are days like July 14 and 15, 2021, when firefighters go to their limits and beyond.

The youth fire brigade does exactly what its name says, and more. Children and teenagers learn knots, equipment knowledge, first aid and how to handle responsibility there. At village festivals they give demonstrations, which is advertising and training at once. Someone who joins the youth brigade at twelve is a serious member of the response team by eighteen. Without this youth work, many small brigades would long since have stopped being able to cover daytime alarms.

Wibbelstetz Kindergarten

The Wibbelstetz kindergarten is a household name in the village, and not only because of its name. At the groundbreaking for the bypass in March 2001 it was the children from there who sang “Hooray, the road is being built.” Pictures like that stay with you. For the municipality, childcare close to home is also a hard location factor. Young families look closely at whether they can place their child in the village or have to drive twenty kilometers every morning.

How a Village Festival Really Comes About

From the outside a village festival looks like beer benches and music. In reality it is logistics. It begins weeks ahead with the question of which club takes which part: setup, bar, kitchen, program, barriers, teardown. Permits have to be obtained, power and water arranged, toilets provided, insurance clarified, drinks calculated. At the celebration for the opening of the bypass in May 2003, it ran according to the following schedule:

The crucial point is not in the table. It is: who takes everything down? Many people still find setup exciting, but at teardown on Monday morning the mood gets thin. Clubs that agree on responsibilities in writing beforehand save themselves trouble afterward. That is exactly why there was an overview at the time of which club handles which slot.

What Endangers Clubs in a Village

Three things regularly put small clubs under pressure. First, the pile-up of offices: when the same person is treasurer, secretary and contact for everything, the club hangs on a single human being. If she drops out, everything stops. Second, the administrative burden. Data protection, tax law, proof for grants, hygiene rules at festivals: for volunteers without business training that is a real hurdle. Third, the creeping expectation that the same people will pitch in anyway. Someone who is never asked eventually stops volunteering.

The same remedy helps against all three: ask early, cut tasks small and really hand over responsibility. Someone who only takes over buying the drinks is a gain. Someone who is offered a board seat right away usually declines. And anyone new to the village needs an invitation that goes beyond a general “come by sometime.”

Getting Involved in Hönningen

Interested in an instrument, in dancing, in the fire brigade or simply in helping at festivals? The easiest way is a direct conversation. Talk to members, come to a rehearsal or a drill, and have a look before you decide. Nobody has to join right away. Watching is explicitly allowed, and most groups are glad just that someone asks.

One last thought: club life runs on nothing by itself and is not an inheritance. It lasts as long as enough people are ready to put time into it. In Hönningen that has been the case for decades, through good times like the inauguration of the bypass and through hard times like the years after the flood. How things go from here you can read under Village Renewal and Rebuilding. And if you want to get to know the village first, a walk may help, with suggestions under Ahr Valley and Hiking.