While the official start of the Basler Fasnacht is on March 10, Basel’s school children get to experience it a little earlier this year! Every five years, they parade through the city center playing drums and piccolos, on the last Thursday before the school holidays—this year February 27—for the Basler Schulfasnacht in der Innerstadt (BSFIDI, Basel’s school carnival in the inner city).

There will be over 13,000 kindergarten and school children participating, accompanied by their teachers and chaperones—a larger number than that of people taking part in the official Basler Fasnacht parades, for which around 11,500 participants are registered! Moreover, the school Fasnacht parade will be accompanied by 38 cliques, groups, and Guggenmusik bands, for a total of 14,300 participants.

The parade will start at 16:30 at the Münsterplatz and wind its way down Baümleingasse and Freie Strasse to the Marktplatz. From there it will cross into Kleinbasel over the Mittlere Brücke and then via Oberer Rheinweg to Theodorskirchplatz, where the procession will end. Thus, for around three hours starting at 16:30, Baslers can expect major traffic bottlenecks along the parade route. Public transport, however, will run normally during the parade. For this reason, it will not be possible to watch the procession on the Mittlere Brücke, which will still be used by trams and buses. Other than that, however, you can watch along the route—but be prepared to be peppered with “Räppli” (confetti), which will be liberally thrown by the kids (as well as some candies distributed).

The thousands of kindergarten kids, school children, and their teachers have been working hard on their costumes and masks in the weeks leading up to the big anticipated event, so come out and help them celebrate this special occasion!

https://www.fasnachts-comite.ch/nachwuchs/bsfidi

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