BEILRODE BLITZE BLAU-MUSIKE

They are dressed in blue and white costumes, their music sounds shrill, and their performance is enthusiastic: the “Blitze Blau-Musike” musicians from Beilrode know how to get their audience’s attention right from the very first beat.
The  “Gut-Laune-Kapelle” (good mood band) was founded by a young quartet of men on the 6th of May 2001. It is the musical department of Beilroder Karnevalsclub BKC, which was founded in 1953, thereby making it the oldest Saxon carnival association. It spreads carnival cheer all year round.

What started out as an autodidactic amateur combo sounds very well-trained today – the music is played using notes.
The repertoire of the two dozen or so fellow musicians includes popular mood music as well as oldies, rock and roll and pop songs. With their timpani and drums, as well as their brass instruments, consisting of trumpet, tuba, trombone, and tenor horn, they play their music in the finest Gugge tradition. Gugge music (»Gugge«: Alemannic for bag, meant as mask), originates from the southern German region and Switzerland and was first documented at the Basel Carnival in 1906.
It stands for “somewhat whacky” brass music, with accompanying percussion instruments that interpret well-known melodies from a variety of different genres. Not only on stage, but also often during a great variety of different parades, this music inspires its listeners. What is more, the bands have original names, uniform clothing and fixed rituals.

When the Beilrode »Blitze Blauen« – musicians, aged between 14 and 40 – celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2021, they will not only be celebrating their resounding hobby with passionate enthusiasm; they will also be cultivating the decades-old tradition of convivial musical entertainment – and, this not only during the carnival season.