The official start of the holiday is planned for July 19 at exactly 6 o’clock in the morning. Such an early time of beginning for mass festivities is directly conditioned by the historical context of the emergence of this tradition. For those participants who strive to master folk dances in advance and feel confident on the floor, free preparatory classes under the guidance of experienced instructors will be organized in the halls of the Hofbräuhaus beer house.
Preparation for the iconic Munich event has entered an active phase.
The organizers expect that in the current year several thousand people, including local residents and foreign tourists, will visit the dance floors at the Chinese Tower. The musical program will be supported by two professional collectives that will alternately replace each other on stage: these are the orchestra from Lower Bavaria Niederbayerische Musikantenstammtisch and the ensemble Schreinergeiger.
They will perform authentic folk melodies. To facilitate the integration of guests into Bavarian dance culture, the city department of culture has prepared a series of educational video materials under the general title “Bavarian Dances.”
The online lessons, available on the main website of the city of Munich, are led by choreographer Katharina Mayer and dancer Magnus Kaindl.
Participants of the cooks’ ball in the English Garden traditionally use folk costumes
For those who prefer an in-person format of preparation, employees of the department of culture will conduct free practical courses directly at the site of the event. The classes are planned for Thursdays — July 2, 9, and 16.
From 19:00 to 20:30, the organizers await everyone interested, and from 20:30 to 22:00, a separate program for youth is provided. Besides this, on Monday, July 13, from 19:00 to 21:00, a special course on learning the Munich quadrille (Francaise) will be organized. Preliminary registration for participation in these master classes is not required.
The origins of this tradition go back to the nineteenth century.
In that era, the domestic servants of Munich houses — cooks, nannies, maids, and coachmen — did not have the possibility to amuse themselves during the day because of a tough working schedule. The only time for leisure remained the early morning of Sunday.
The servants gathered at the Chinese Tower at dawn in order to manage to dance before the beginning of the morning church service and the return to their duties. In 1904, the original Kocherlball was banned because of complaints to the authorities about an alleged decline of morals of those present.
The modern format of the ball, existing since 1989, revived this old custom. Many guests come to the event in recreated costumes of that era, changing into the uniforms of servants, or use classical Bavarian national costumes (Trachten).
The holding of such a specific and mass event at dawn requires special preparation from the city services of Munich. The municipal transport enterprise MVG on the night of the ball will launch additional bus trips to deliver hundreds of citizens to the English Garden by 5 o’clock in the morning.
The success of the modern Kocherlball among Munich residents demonstrates a phenomenon where a local historical ritual of servants transformed into a city-wide event attracting connoisseurs of living history. The preservation of tough requirements for the program — from a live orchestra to the careful recreation of the dress code — allows maintaining a balance between the development of tourism and the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage of the region.
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