Gäubodenvolksfest Straubing Germany

The Gäuboden folk festival traditionally begins on the first Friday with the procession to the festival meadow.
Around 3,500 participants, over 80 music and traditional costume groups, festival floats and horse-drawn carriages take part in the traditional procession to the festival meadow.
In 1812, the Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph "most graciously" granted the people of Straubing permission to hold an agricultural festival in the "Unterdonaukreis". Over the course of two centuries, this developed into Bavaria's second largest folk festival, the absolute highlight of the region's event calendar.
Incidentally, the word "Gäuboden" refers to the level, flat land ("Gäu") south of the Danube, whose fertility comes from the loess soil.