Kirkcaldy-Ingolstadt: 60 years of twin town links marked with special events

Now Kirkcaldy and Ingolstadt’s twin town link is to celebrate 60 years by raising as glass to an enduring friendship.

This weekend, Kirkcaldy Ingolstadt Association will kick off its Diamond Jubilee with the rousing sounds of a Bavarian oompah band ringing around several venues across the Lang Toun.

The 19-strong Ingolstadt beer festival band, Hampara, have arrived in town ahead of a busy weekend of engagements.

They are guests at Kirkcaldy Acoustic Music Club on Thursday (September 10) will play a free show open to all at Styx, Kirkcaldy on Friday evening, and then add a suitably Bavarian soundtrack to the pre-match entertainment at Stark’s Park ahead of Raith Rovers’ game against Inverness CT.

On Saturday evening they will give the official anniversary concert at the Old Kirk … and they just pop up elsewhere in town when you least expect them!

It’s a fitting celebration of a link that has endured across the generations.

While the pandemic has taken wiped out a chink of the planning time, the Kirkcaldy committee was keen to celebrate the landmark.

It has events and visits scheduled from now through to next summer.

The ties that bind certainly remain strong. Only last week seven runners from Ingolstadt took part in Kirkcaldy Parks Running Festival.

The welcome they got summed up the ethos of town twinning.

“They had a fantastic time,” said Robert Main, who chairs KIA. “They had never experienced the support they got from people lining the streets and made so many friends.”

After nurturing the links through the pandemic online - from digital art projects to regular WhatsApp chats - Robert is delighted to see the return of in person visits.

There are plans to bring golfers from Ingolstadt to Balwearie to take part in the trophy named after the town, while young musicians from Bavaria will also be part of Fife Festival of Music 2023 for the very first time.

And those introductions can have long-lasting benefits.

Over the decades, high schools have developed great links with their Ingolstadt counterparts, while youngsters have come to Kirkcaldy for training placements.

Just as COVID struck, the association was working with Travel Your world in Kirkcaldy to offer city breaks for people to see Ingolstadt for themselves.

“It’s a fantastic city,” said Robert who first went there as a youngster with Kirkcaldy YM’s under-16 football team. “It is a beautiful place.”

It was the late Roy McNab - a stalwart of early town twin links - who got Robert involved. That was back in 2003.

By then he had many a number of trips to the German town.

In the early 1970s he had a summer job there and stayed with the same family who he remains in touch with.

And it is those personal contacts which underpin any town twinning arrangement.

“We have seen the link grow and go from strength to strength,” he said. “Many groups continue to flourish - from Rotarians to golf clubs to the Neeburs of Geordie Munro. Some links may have lapsed through time, but we are looking to create new ones going ahead now that COVID restrictions have lifted,

“The number of friendships that have been created over the decades is fantastic.”

The Kirkcaldy-Ingolstadt town partnership was the tenth of its kind between Scotland and Bavaria, and visits between the two have embraced every aspect of life from business to culture.

The Ingolstadt newspaper, the Danube Courier, has often focussed on issues in Kirkcaldy, while the Fife Free Press used to carry regular bulletins from its pages.

In 1997 the Friendship Association Ingoldstadt-Kirkcaldy (F.IN.KY) was formed in the Bavarian town to spark renewed interest in the link, and that led the Lang Toun to be part of the Central Bavarian Exhibition held every two years.

Schools and groups such as Kirkcaldy YM remain pillars of the town twinning link, and the coming months will see a number of gatherings and visits which Robert hopes will strengthen the link once more after the pandemic.

“Rather than target one date for the anniversary, we wanted to create an anniversary year with lots of activities,” he said. “Now we are free from COVID restrictions, we can look ahead with some confidence.”

All of the work behind the scenes is done voluntarily, with families hosting visitors and giving their time freely help stage events and functions; “the common will to keep in touch with each other, to stand up for the spirit of mutual understanding and to make the best possible efforts to ensure the citizens of our cities get to know each other.”

The above words came from the 1962 accord which set in motion six decades of friendship and remain true to this day.

“We think of encounters of young people, of the exchange of cultural values, of conversations and communal political experiences, in short, of everything that can stimulate and consolidate human relations.”

The unmistakable sound of an oompah band resonating across town this weekend is a fitting reminder of how many lives have been enriched by the link between the Lang Toun and its Bavarian friends.

“I am looking forward immensely to this anniversary year that celebrates 60 years of twinning between Kirkcaldy and Ingolstadt.

“The twinning programme has been created with fresh optimism, after two challenging Covid years, around recommencing all the fantastic twinning activities at home and in Ingolstadt that we hope that will encourage, enthuse and engage others to become involved.”