No fair, no Christmas market. What are the showmen doing during this time? We met the Schmidt family, who are out and about with bumper cars, children’s carousels and candy stands at the big fairgrounds in Germany. And for more than 50 years also on the Halveraner.
Halver – you are not from Halver, the Schmidts. But they belong to Halver. The showman family has been an integral part of the Halveran fair for more than 50 years. With the bumper car, a children’s carousel and a candy stand, three generations of Schmidt are always distributed in the streets of the city center. In May it would have been that time again. But like every other event, the fair in Halver was canceled. Christmas markets have also been canceled. The Corona year is coming to an end, the pandemic is not. How is the Schmidt family doing?
Management report from Remscheid, the city the Schmidts come from: “I’m making fresh almonds right now,” says Frank Schmidt. A bit hectic, mind you. His roasted almonds have to be perfect. In a small annex on the property, the head of the Almonds family burns for the stalls that he, his wife and two daughters run.
Almonds and popcorn are the salvation
The Schmidt almonds are available all year round in the shopping center in Remscheid. For some time now, there has been a stand in the von den Schmidts shopping center in Wuppertal, and the third stand recently followed in Limbecker Platz in Essen. With sweets against the crisis. “Selling almonds keeps us afloat,” says Frank Schmidt. None of the family’s rides was at a fair all year round. If they were otherwise only parked for a short time in their own vehicle fleet, in order to rest only a few days before the next fair, now they just stand around. The many lightbulbs haven’t been on all year. The bumper car is compressed on a trailer. Frank Schmidt put insurance on hold for a long time. The aim is to save taxes. The cost of the downtime would not be affordable.
Selling almonds keeps us afloat
You get through the year, assures Schmidt. Without the almonds, the family would have a problem, but this is how it works. “But everyone does something,” says Schmidt. Even if it’s just a food truck in front of a hardware store. The showmen fight for survival in the crisis. The Schmidts don’t know life as it was this year. Always on the move from city to city, they usually live in their meter-long caravans, which come close to a house on wheels. They are almost never at home. And even when you are in Remscheid, you don’t sleep in the house – but in the caravan, because it’s not worth it. “As long as I haven’t lived a single summer at home.”
A booth recently opened in the Limbecker Platz shopping center in Essen.
© Schmidt
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Only Ruth Schmidt, Frank Schmidt’s mother, who insists on selling the chips in the children’s carousel, stays in the house. They laugh heartily, and it is not uncommon for the children to get more chips than they actually bought. She suffered the most this year. The 81-year-old doesn’t know life without a fair. When the Cranger fair in Herne was canceled, it was a shock for the Schmidts. “The Cranger fair didn’t take place only once – in 1945.” That says something, says Frank Schmidt. But by and large everyone is fine. The good soul and mother Claudia and also two daughters Lorena and Jaqueline.
The Schmidts used the time, like many others, to bring their garden into shape. The older daughter, Jaqueline, has her truck driving test this week. Then she too can be at the steering wheel if there is a fair again in the coming season. But “nobody can say whether there will be fair fairs in 2021,” says Frank Schmidt. He invests his time in almond production. He sells eight kilograms at a stand on good days. This is how the traditional family will manage to get through the crisis – and customers will not forget the taste of the fair.
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