How the Kocherlball 2026 went

Sunday, 19 July 2026

Dancing at dawn

At six the English Garden still lay in half-darkness, and already the first couples were turning at the tower. As on every third Sunday in July, thousands had come in Tracht.

The day began long before the first note. From four the tables filled with breakfast baskets, candlesticks and Thermos flasks, and anyone arriving at half past five walked in past a guard of honour in Dirndls, Lederhosen, aprons and bonnets. At six the band began. The first waltz belonged, as it always does, to the undaunted on the gravel in front of the tower.

Until ten the morning kept its familiar rhythm: open dancing, the group dances explained from the stage in between, and to finish the Münchner Française, in which couples lost each other in the lines and squares and found each other again. Then the beer garden went back to being a beer garden. The first guests went home just as the rest of the city was putting the coffee on.