Guido Cantz and Sabine Heinrich
WDR presenter comments on Cologne’s Rose Monday procession for the first time
Cologne carnival veteran: Guido Cantz
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It’s not just Rhenish geeks who are looking forward to the Rose Monday parade in Cologne. Cantz and Heinrich will be the WDR commentator duo in 2024.
“Kölle alaaf” will once again ring out millions of times on Cologne’s streets on February 12th. Then the Rose Monday parade rolls back through Cologne city center with thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of jeers on the side of the road. With Rhenish joy of life, a new dream team is reporting on the famous “Zoch” this year, as WDR has now announced. Carnival expert and TV presenter Guido Cantz (52) brings his WDR colleague Sabine Heinrich into the commentary booth for the first time in this session.
Rose Monday is the highest holiday in the foolish year
For carnival fans it is the highest holiday in their fifth season: Rose Monday. The carnival parades in Cologne, Mainz and Düsseldorf attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city centers on the Rhine every year. The home station of the Cologne Carnival, the WDR will broadcast the crazy events into people’s living rooms on February 12th from 9:30 a.m. Carnival fans all over the republic can then watch live as the jecken along the train route and throughout the city celebrate the most important holiday of the Cologne Fastelovend.
Change from the drafty train to the warm cabin
While carnival veteran Guido Cantz traditionally comments on the parade, Sabine Heinrich will sit next to Cantz in the commentary booth for the first time in 2024. The native of Westphalia had been reporting on train events on the street as a reporter since 2019. Defying wind and weather, she has earned Cantz’s full respect: “I’m looking forward to Sabine Heinrich. After years as a reporter on Zugweg, Sabine definitely has confetti in her blood. If anyone is familiar with sitting at the microphone live in the morning, then that’s it them. My motto: Heinrich – Cantz!”
TV and radio presenter Heinrich moved to the Rhineland 20 years ago. Despite the prospect of a warm spot next to Cantz, she will also miss her job as a “Zoch” reporter: “I loved standing on the train path as a reporter in all wind and weather, right on the pulse of the great carnival happiness. Now I’ll sit next to Guido in the commentary booth and I’m sure I’ll have a very high carnival happiness pulse myself.”