Events, Hamburg

Every June, the Hamburger neighborhood of Altona has a two week community festival celebrating art, literature, music and crafts, culminating in a 72 hour weekend celebration.

The festival begins in the heart of Altona, at the Altona Train Station, and stretches out to the surrounding streets and promenades with exotic crafts shopping, carnival style food, stage performances, and discounted bargains from partcipating shops.

It's an incredibly lively event with people young and old coming out to have a beer or glass of wine . Families come out with baby carriages and cute dogs. Street performers have sidewalk shows in full costume, maybe playing a South American Indian woodwinds concert, or a Brazilian percussion club parades through the streets. Street vendors set up stalls hawking exotic wares from West Africa, Nepal, India, Morrocco, Germany, and other parts of Europe. Theatres and museums in the area offer special productions and exibitions, and bookshops both modern and antiquarian offer literary activities . For the kids there are usually a couple of small rides and face painters. Food stalls dot the promenades of Ottensen Haupstrasse (and parts of Grossebergstrasse), with endless sweets, crepes, German street food, gourmet wines and cheeses, Indian, African, Asian, and Turkish specialties.

The last weekend of the festival is a (practically) non-stop party, with 3 different soundstages set up and top bands from Northern Germany performing free concerts from noon til evening. Musical offerings range from gospel to swing, to pop, rock, and reggae . Unltimately,the festival is a fun way to spend a few hours- drinking, eating, maybe picking up some Morroccan kitchenware...and it's "equal opportunity" fun: great for either families, seniors, students, singles, or romantic couples!

The Hamburg Altonale Festival 2006 takes place this year from June 2-Jun18. See the website for specific activities.

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Normally DOM means cathedral in german and so there is the Salzburger Dom, in Vienna we have the Stephans-dom , in Rome the Peters-dom...
BUT in Hamburg there are 3 annual festivities that are called "Hamburger Dom" :
for 1 months in spring there will be a "Frühlings-Dom"
There is also a Sommer-Dom for 1 month in July and August
and finally a Winter-Dom , mostly in December
The Dom is always located at "Heiliggeist-Feld" close to Reeperbahn
get out at U-bahn-station "St.Pauli"
it is open Monday-Thursday: 03.00p.m. - 11.00p.m.
friday and saturday from 03.00p.m. till midnight
sundays between 03.00p.m. and 11.00p.m.
click here for the exacte dates of the Dom
for the following years untill 2011

IN 2004 I had this wonderful Mini-VT-Meeting with Lou (alza) and I decided, that I would like to make VT-meetings in Hamburg a local custom. So whenever you are in Hamburg, write me an Email so that we can arrange a VT-meeting!!!

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Pok ta Pok is the game the ancient Mayans played in the famous Ballcourt. It is a sportive game, where a ball has to be send through a ring in the wall, using only elbows and hips. It was a game connected with worshipping the gods. Scientists today are not sure, whether the winning team was sacrificed to the gods or the loosers after the game. The name comes from the noice the ball makes when the ball bounces against the wall.

We had the great oppotunity to watch this colorful game on Rathausmarkt in the center of Hamburg in Apil 2006.

Intro

Yesterday as I was drinking my first cup of coffee I heard the sound of drums, flutes, and bells. It took me awhile to realize what it was. It was the parade kicking off the Harburger Schützenfest.

What is a Schützenverein?

In Hamburg-Harburg and many other towns in Germany men (and women) get together in their Schützen Vereinen aka Shooting Clubs and spend their weekends hunting and/or skeet shooting. Once a year the clubs in Hamburg-Harburg get together and have a big festival. There are four of these clubs in HH-Harburg

The Fest

The fest is where they crown the Schützenkönig aka The Shooting King (or queen/Königin). This person is determined by shooting a giant plywood bird, that looks like the one in the photo. Whoever blows the head off of this bird is king for the year. The king then buys drinks for all the Club members. Which I imagine gets rather expensive.

At the fest there are small rides for kids, food stands, and music. This year for example a very popular Hamburg band Lotto King Karl is performing. Oh and not to forget there is also fireworks. The fest last 8 days.

Where its at

The Harburger Schützenfest takes place in June every year at Schwarzenberg in Hamburg-Harburg.
Schwarzenberg is a park/ and festival grounds that is situated on Schwarzenberg Strasse in between HH-Harburg and HH-Heimfeld.

We have lots of 'Moves' in Hamburg during the summer.
G-Move, Love Parade and Schlager Move. This picture shows me and my sister and some of her friends at the Schlager-Move at the 19th September 2000. It was my sisters birthday and we had a good time.
A man from the Pixelnet company asked if he can make a picture from us and some days later he mailed it to me.

Info. Coming Soon!