The history of the Tivoli Youth Guard
The 100 youths that make up todays Tivoli Youth Guard is a tradition running back to 1844 when the world´s first youth guard was established. After the first successful season in 1843 Tivoli´s founder Georg Carstensen decided to give himself a Tivoli Youth Guard as a birthday present for the second season. And so it came to pass.
Excerpt from the book ”The Tivoli Youth Guard”, published at the 140 anniversary in 1984:
“The little military guard” or “the Lilliputian Military” consisted of 30 boys in its first season. Among these were one officer, a commanding sergeant, four tambours (i. e. drummers). When they performed they were compensated with one mark a day, four open sandwiches and a half beer, but for most of them the pleasure of participating exceeded the joy of this modest income – although it was often needed”.
“The Guard had its original quarters in the cellar of the Pantomime Theatre, “a dark and scary place full of props”, but the year after they moved to a room underneath the rollercoaster. Unfortunately this place was so noisy when the cars were rolling that it was impossible to hear anything else. In 1844 alone the Guard performed 6 times in the Gardens and they also entertained the audience on October 13th with a sack race at the Lawn in front of the Concert Hall.”
From 1844 to 2014 the Tivoli Youth Guard has been for boys only but from 2015 girls were admitted on equal footing with the boys.
