9TH Irish Fómhar SET DANCE WEEKEND 2025
Friday 17.10. - Sunday 19.10. 2025
Venue: Hl. Dreifaltigkeit, Ulmer Straße 195 a, 86156 Augsburg
Friday:
20:30 - 23:00
Welcome Ceili with Augusta Ceili Band
Saturday:
10.00-12:30
Workshop with Andrea Forstner
Lunch
14:00-16:30
Workshop with Andrea Forstner
Dinner: 18:30
20:00
Ceili with Augusta Ceili Band/ Session
Sunday:
10:30-13:00
Farewell Ceili with Augusta Ceili Band
Fees: (onsite cash payment)
Complete Weekend (inkl. lunch and dinner at the venue) 95.- €
Single booking Ceilis
20.- € each.
We offer breakfast together at the venue on Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 am. Price breakfast 7.- € each.
If you are interested, please confirm when registering!
Contact : Sandra Ulrich
mobile: +4917682735332
email: info@setdance-augsburg-steppach.de
The workshop will take place in the large parish hall. Limited number of participants!!
All details are subject to change without prior notice. No liability for injury or loss of personal property.
A fine welcome to Augsburg
Come to Augsburg in South Germany October 2024
We´ll have some great dancing together again with Andrea Forstner and the Augusta Ceili Band. Then you can stay around. We can help you find suitable accommodation and give some tips so you can plan your days.
Let me sketch you a picture of what you can expect to tell your friends when you get back home.
Augsburg is the second oldest city in Germany. The Romans liked the trade routes and started building a settlement. We´ve become civilized Bavarians during the 2000 years later and only one or two of us still wear sheepskin coats. The Set Dancers sent them to Ireland to have their nice pullovers made properly.
Now, here´s a lot about our history and what the place looks like.
It´s a sort of big and small city, only 25 km across, and the historical centre is full of eminent buildings and areas to explore. I especially like looking around the sturdy brick and stone town defence walls where small houses, fountains, curious gates, water towers, trees, beer gardens and student bicycles all seem to have been thrown in on top of each other year after year.
The city has always been a regional centre for many crafts and their guilds, furriers and violin makers included. From the Middle Ages onwards many immigrants stayed and gave Augsburg a worldly character. Many hundreds of years ago the rivers were engineered to supply mills, tanneries, weaving, paper, cloths, meat cooling and a grand municipal supply system. When it was finished, huge fountains with elaborate statues were built in celebration. They are still in working order and decorate the largest streets that we call the “Golden Mile”. A special “thank you” to all you engineers; it won us the UNESCO World Heritage title last year.
During these centuries some company´s trading successes took the spotlight in Europe. It was noticeably in cloth and precious metal fashioning, but also and particularly international trade and merchant banking. The top figures were in the Welser family who once owned Venezuela and the formidable Jakob Fugger, who was perhaps more of a wealthy world ruler in the 15th Century than Bill Gates in the 20th Century. You´ll still find many buildings, estates and castles attached to their ownership. My favourite is the Damenhof; take a stroll there and treat your lady to a tasty cocktail next to the marble pool under the Tuscan arcades where there is no city noise.
Augsburg went through a golden renaissance age when many palaces and public buildings were commissioned. They are by and large still here and are kept brightly polished. Even before this time the Augsburg Church leaders were directing historical changes. The “Augsburg Confession” and “Peace” still keeps large religious orders firmly seated in big zones of the city centre. Look out for them, like Martin Luther once did. The tall church spires are watching everywhere and maybe you can reply by running up the wooden steps to the top of the town in the Perlach tower. That´s one of our annual crazy competitions. Alternatively, just enjoy the sun in one or two of the gardens, parks or courtyards. It´s your holiday anyway.
The museums give you an excellent account of times past and present and highlight the stories about our famous citizens. There are daily guided tours. Test us dancers later to see if we know about:
Bishop Ulrich, Roland and Sandra Ulrich, Agnes Bernauer, Jakob Fugger, Hans Holbein,
Konrad Peutinger, Jakob Welser, Hans Burkmaier, Elias Holl, Leopold Mozart,
Rudolf Diesel, Bertold Brecht and King Gerhard.
The pedestrian areas are large enough for you to spend hours on your dancing feet in a leisurely polka over cobble stones that can recall changes in lifestyles from torchlight to internet. There´s also free public transport within the precincts. You can creep around the old alleyways in the lower town and go over more canal bridges than there are in Venice. You´ll find:
Dancing Halls old and new
Bars with great food, not so few
Rowing boats on the watery blue
Parks and squares when you want nothing to do
A famous puppet theatre with a clear view
Ice hockey and football fans all happy and true
Shops with violins from Katmandu
Cheese noodles that stick like glue
Our student scene is big and there´s up to date culture and nightlife every day if you like that sort of thing.
And still further (90 km) is the incompararable Fairy-Tale castle, Schloss Neuschwanstein. The jewel in the mountains. Legend has it that our Fairy-Tale Fiddlers once used to live in the castle grounds, near the kitchens. Tip: book weeks ahead on-line if you want to get in. Alternatively you could travel the same distance to Bavaria´s stairway to heaven. The Zugspitze mountain is Germany´s top step to the clouds above. The panorama is amazing, looking into Austria and over the Alpine Glory. Both of these places are serviced by good public transport connections.
We will have all the glossy tourist brochures for you here for when you arrive.
Just a final word now before you make your booking, and it´s the pass-word, for everything here south of the Danube. Use it and there´s no problem getting into Ceilithe, getting into a bus or getting friendly.
Please learn before Arrival:
Grüß Gott
Text und Fotos: Michael Nicholls
Änderungen Termine/Veranstaltungen vorbehalten.
Die Veranstalter übernehmen keinerlei Haftung.