Neukölln is a weird place in Berlin. At first glance, the neighborhood looks like a clash of cultures or, maybe, the future of Germany. But, in the back streets, you can find a glimpse of the past, and this is called Popraci, a hay roll race that has been happening for ten years, yet most people don’t even know it exists.
I got together with a few friends and put together a team to race in this year’s Popraci Neukolln 2017, and here you can read everything about it.
We have been following Popraci in Neukölln for years and have even written something about it. After watching it happen in front of us, we decided to participate. Hay roll racing is something that we don’t have in Brazil, so it could be an unusual experience for us. Something unique for a Saturday afternoon with friends and some beers. Why not?
When you read the Popraci Neukolln 2017, points are spread around categories for you to win. For you to win to race fast, you have to know the history of the Rixdorf area of Neukölln, and you have to have an awesome costume.
We knew we could win regarding the region’s history, but we knew that winning the race would be nearly impossible. So, how could we improve our points? Let’s try something with our costumes.
After some lame ideas, Marcela came up with the True Norwegian Black Metal visual, and we all got together the morning before the race and started with the makeup.
We chose between some “examples” of corpse paint and were set to go. On our walk from Rathaus Neukölln to Rixdorf, we knew our costume was great since so many people were stunned to see the six of us walking like that.
Our costumes were so great that, once we reached the area designated for the hay roll race, one of the people taking care of the competition screamed at us, saying we were his favorites already. Yeah, black metal can make this to people.
In the end, we did the hay roll race. It was way harder than we thought, but we had to celebrate it either way. We raced, and it was fantastic, and we will have this experience with us for a long time. It’s too bad we didn’t win, but we will be there again to try something else next year.
After the race, we had some beers while we waited for the other races to be over, and when we were about to go away, we heard our team name onstage. We were about to leave when we won the award for Best Costume at Popraci Neukolln 2017! We went onstage and celebrated like crazy.
Popraci Neukölln 2017 was fantastic. The race was crazy fun, the costumes were great, and our team didn’t win, but we showed the world that black metal is the law.
Thanks to Canal Alemanizando for being a part of our black metal team and for some pictures here. And thank you, Popraci Neukolln 2017, for existing! This race was beyond fun, and we will be there next year.
