Carnival of Cultures Party

Berlin's Karneval der Kulturen is a three-day party culminating in a huge parade. The party centres around Blücherplatz, a big green space, and the old church, Kirchof Jerusalem und Neue Kirche in Western Kreuzberg.

The party begins in the afternoon as a family affair with lots of activities for kids and the park soon filled up with them.

 Pretty exciting stuff!

Soon the park was a sea of chilling people, reminiscent of hippy gatherings of the sixties.

People danced to the sound of impromptu drumming, fuelled perhaps by more than alcohol.

 Bill settled for a mojito from the many cocktail bars.

 I went for a cold, fresh German pilsner.

 Amongst the many jewellery and clothing stalls, Bill found a lovely necklace for his mother, Reta. The beautiful seller even displayed it for us. 

As the evening approached the park filled up with young revellers

all with drinks in hand.

For us it was time to think about food

 but not bratwurst.

 Bill got us falafels.

It was nice to sit for awhile and watch people go by.

After our snack a couple of bands got up to play. We enjoyed this French ska band. Ska always sounds like a party.

 And we loved this musician from Mali. He was just getting started as we slipped away. The music could be heard in the distance well into the night.

Carnival of Cultures Parade

John and I have found from photographing big parades like Gay Pride and Caribana in Toronto that the best shots are to be taken by visiting the set-up before the parade begins.

and so on our last day in Berlin we took the u-bahn to Hermannplatz and slipped up Urbanstrasse where all the fabulous ethnic and arts groups were preparing to parade down Gneisestrasse in the Karneval der Kulturen.

Participants in the wonderful display were adjusting their costumes

and visiting with friends. Spirits were high!

Bill loved this lady in stilts 

being dressed with a little help from her friends.

We loved the vivid colours,

and the dancing had already begun.

Everyone was ready for their close-up

or watching the groups practice.

It was great fun to capture creatures before they hit the street.

and participants waiting for their group to be given the ok to join the procession.

It was truly a delightful,

colourful,

friendly

display of the cultural variety of the city.

Flamenco, caveman and river dance feet were revving up for the march.

As always, the samba girls

and the samba beat were favourites.

A blonde samba princess was escorted

to her car

and then the girls really turned on the heat.

As the parade started to crawl for its 8 hour journey through the crowd of a million admirers, John and I slipped off to our beloved Seerose restaurant for a last meal of scrumptious vegetarian grub before we went back to the apartment to begin the cleaning and packing for our return to Toronto. What a send-off!