BASEL - Hotels in Kleinbasel and around Barfuesserplatz reported occupancy above 90 percent for the Fasnacht stretch. Lanterns were already in the squares. Clique cellars ran extra rehearsals that neighbours have learned to treat as weather.
A share of regulars who live in other cantons said they would travel on Sunday to drop a ballot paper, then come back for Monday's 4 a.m. start. SBB extra trains for carnival do not line up neatly with polling-station hours.
Private language, public streets
Visitors who treat Fasnacht as a show will learn, as they do every year, that the verses assume you already know the year's scandals. The Morgenstreich report is the public face. The cellars are the rest.