It all started with the challenge of transforming the parquet floor of the festival hall into a tournament floor. Ahead of the fiftieth edition, the Festhallen equestrian tournament is one of “Frankfurt’s Big Four” when it comes to sporting events, as organizer Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, who accompanies the tournament in a long family tradition, explained at the press conference before the anniversary on Tuesday.
From this Wednesday up to and including Sunday, the tournament will take place in a pre-Christmas atmosphere and a new length. This year, spectators can expect half a day more equestrian entertainment: the tournament opens with the big anniversary show on the first evening. “We did a lot of digging through the history and prepared video material,” said tournament director Matthias Alexander Rath, who will also be in the dressage arena.
“Rider on the waiting list”
This is not the only innovation that the festival hall tournament is starting with this year: there will be a four-star competition in show jumping for the first time. The riders’ support for the additional star was clearly noticeable, said Rath. “There is a high demand for the competition. We still have riders on the waiting list.”
A total of 58 riders and 122 horses will be on display in the course. Among others, Richard Vogel, who recently won the Rolex Grand Prix in Geneva, will be there. From the international field of participants, spectators will also be treated to the appearance of Olympic bronze winner and European champion Pius Schwizer from Switzerland. On the starting list for the dressage tests, some of which are held at five-star level, is the seven-time Olympic champion Isabell Werth, who Rath highlighted as a special highlight.
Points for the Olympics
But here too there are likely to be exciting couples from the international starting field. For good reason: “The festival hall tournament is also an opportunity to collect points for next year’s Olympics,” said Rath. After the anniversary show, the tournament continues on Thursday with the Nuremberg Burg Cup for dressage riders – a special test for Thomas Wagner, who took part in the festival hall tournament for the first time in 2010.
Even as a child, he made it his goal to ride for the Nuremberg Burg Cup and especially for the winner’s prize, said the dressage rider from Bad Homburg. Last year, Wagner won the winner’s prize on his horse Wynton’s Son. The winner’s prize, in which the participants perform a freestyle at their own discretion, will take place on Saturday evening this year. The following morning the Louisdor Prize is up for horse, rider and audience. Some of Germany’s best young horses will be on display here.
The tournament officials seem to have struck a chord with the audience with the program. “Advance sales are above last year’s level,” said Rath. A success that, according to Linsenhoff, is due to the fact that the Festhallen tournament is not just a sporting event, but a pre-Christmas event for the whole family that has established itself as a solid tradition in Frankfurt. “That’s the recipe,” Linsenhoff said.
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Rath also announced one of the most emotional moments of the tournament: dressage rider Dorothee Schneider, who is not taking part in the tournament this time, will retire her horse Showtime in the festival hall on Saturday. “She has a close connection to this tournament,” Rath said.
If Linsenhoff has his way, there will be more moving moments waiting for the audience. She has one main goal for the tournament: “That people go home on Sunday with shining eyes.” Rath agreed with this: “I don’t want to say straight away for the next 50, but definitely for the next few years. “
