Descent into madness 3, The Madening – Lucern Carnival

The whole affair revolved around marching bands that would march though the streets and into a square and play music to the masses then march around somewhere else and drink while other bands played there. This goes on pretty much all day. What they lacked talent or coordination they more than made up with in raw drunken enthusiasm. The raw energy (and perhaps the massive quantities of alcohol) meant that everyone joined in jumping around or swaying along. The happy mood is truly infections. There is a Large parade around midday but the biggest fun is the after party which clogs every street square and building.
The music is varied and fun, but it is harder than spicks and specks to guess what the song is as the 30 trumpets, 5 tubas, 4 drum-kits, and several large drums pound merrily into the dancers overwhelming the brain with the command to bomp along... I did recognised Alice cooper and Meatloaf amongst others.

The first time you see a giant chicken playing the tuba you think it’s kind of weird... but then you see a large collection of fish-men with Gatling gun you only wonder where they keep the alcohol. I do have to admit that every time I bumped into a squadron of the French foreign legion, the Spanish soldiers, or the incredibly drunk ‘English police’ (all talking swiss-german) I had the compulsion to hide my drink and look nonchalant. But the truly amassing thing was the vast range of things people dress up as, of course the always popular vampires and pirates where there, and a lot of gumibears, but there were a lot of unusual people goblins, golf balls, spacemen, angry vegetables, sea creatures, frogs, artists, Disney characters like Mickey (and you can be sure they are drunk - just like at Disneyworld), dogs, gods, angry man with giant head, and SO SO much more.

It was about the time when i was dancing with four dwarves, two knights, and a fish, to the sounds of a brass band (of 39 Mario and Luigis including 4 tubas, some big bass drums and one squeaking penguin) playing Livin' la Vida Loca, that two thoughts struck me. (1) – no matter how nice a body you may have a 3 foot beard is not a good look on a chick. (2) – This is probably one of those moments i will long remember, and remember fondly.