Singers' gathering goes international

A short summary of how contact was established with the Bavarian singers: In the early 1950s, the hosts of the Stanglwirt visited "Jörgele", a popular wine bar in the Old Town of Innsbruck, to perform some songs.

Anderl Ostler, the bobsleigh world champion from Garmisch and himself an enthusiastic singer, just happened to be there, and was so enthralled by the wonderful sound of the trio that he promised to come to the Stanglwirt singers' gathering with some Bavarian singers, as well as performing himself, of course. To start with, there were only a few Bavarian folk musicians, but their number increased over time. Their spirited music brought a new flavour to the singers' gatherings. The limited mobility of the individual groups and the Stanglwirt's rather isolated location in Going was a big problem at the time. Only a very few people had cars.

Lois often picked up the singers from their homes or the nearest train station in his Mercedes 170, and took them back there after the meeting. The compères of the singers' gathering changed a lot in the early years. After Alois Käferböck, the two radio announcers Fritz Bieler and Siegfried Wagner, Fritz Böck from Kufstein, Sepp Spachtholz from Kramsach and Lois Plattner from Wörgl hosted the evening and introduced the singers. Stanglwirt hostess Anna Hauser was still looking for "her" compère and finally found the right person in Sepp Landmann, the young teacher from Brixlegg, who worked in the single-class primary school in Hygna and whose qualities as an excellent presenter and speaker at various events were well-known in Unterinntal.