Krampus celebrated his first Fiesta Thursday night at the inaugural Krampus Fiesta Pachanga and, once and for all, the demonic portal was opened in San Antonio.
Hosted at The Good Kind in Southtown, the event was organized to raise money for San Antonio’s December parade celebrating the mythic German creature who carts off bad boys and girls around Christmastime.
Krampus Parade Grand Marshal Bob Crittenden told the Current that the city asked organizers to scale the parade after the overwhelming response to its first run last year in the King William neighborhood. The funds raised at the Pachanga will pay for increased security measures at this winter’s gathering.
For those wondering what a Yuletide demon is doing at Fiesta, Crittenden cooked up an an elaborate story to explain, and performers brought it to life in the backyard of The Good Kind. It all started with a dance routine by the Bewitching Brujas troupe, which related the 1970s San Antonio urban legend of the Devil in the Dancehall, whose identity Crittenden and krewe revealed in a tabloid called Occulto. Turns out, the dancing diablo’s real name is Kiko.
The Brujas danced with the devil in front of a glowing portal, which summoned Krampus to the fête.
“Eins, zwei, drei, vier” Krampus growled as he passed through the portal. “Hide your children — Krampus is here!”
The dancers then surrounded the ghoulish Christmas character, adorned him with flower crowns and handed him chicken on a stick.
After the Fiesta tableau, Krampus led a conga line into a tent, where Tex-Mex punk band Piñata Protest launched into an explosive set while revelers wearing masks and horns head-banged along.
A handful of evangelical protesters stood outside the venue, witnessing to attendees as they entered.
“I think it’s very fitting that there are people protesting outside,” said Piñata Protest frontman Álvaro Del Norte. “Maybe we should be out there too.”
The evening was a fusion of cultures, as demonstrated by the familial relations of the Latino diablo Kiko and German Krampus. This was further underscored by Piñata Protest’s performance. Even Del Norte’s accordion — popular in both German polka and Mexican Norteño music — represented a point of intersection.
By inventing new lore, Crittenden and his Valkyrie von Krampus successfully interwove German and Mexican traditions in the middle of King William, a historically German neighborhood in a Mexican-American city. And what could be more Puro San Anto than that?
