Boy´s Fasnacht

Once on an inhabitant of Imst turns 16, he’s allowed to participate in Fasnacht – that’s the tradition. (There is no upper age limit – participants retire if they want to make room for the younger generations or if they do not feel up to the demands of the event anymore). You have to imagine the impatience of young boys, still years away from actively participating, but nonetheless already feeling like fully fledged Fasnachtler: the result of this impatience was that again and again groups of boys organized “wild” – unauthorized – Fasnachten: nicking a Larve (mask) here, a jacket there, finding a Gschall (bells) in the attic, some pants in a cupboard and soon they were ready to imitate the old ones – both in their behavior and in their seriousness.

A spitting image

In the late 1930s and especially after WWII, these Bubenfasnachten (boy’s Fasnachten) began to be systematically organized. Today, the Buabefåsnåcht is firmly established in Imst’s Fasnacht schedule. Two years before the grown ups, the boys go to Fasnacht. The Buabefåsnåcht is the spitting image of the adult men’s Schemenlaufen - all the main figures are present, the procedure is the same, only the Monday is omitted so as not to ask too much of the young protagonists. The number of floats is restricted to the traditional ones – the ones of witches and bears.