Dancing in the Street

 

Saturday 30^th August was the day of the ‘strassenfest’ in Dunckerstrasse.  The street was closed between the junction with Stargarderstrasse and the bridge over the railway tracks (right outside our door) in preparation.  From early in the morning I could hear the clatter of the stalls being set up. 

The festivities kicked off at 2.00 in the afternoon and went on until 11.00 p.m. with a line-up of bands playing on the stage at the Stargarderstrasse end.  In addition to the three bars in that stretch of the street, there was a beer tent, and one of the bars – Beakers – had set up an outside cocktail bar from which they did a brisk trade in mojitos and caipirinhas.  Even the bakery on the corner stayed open all evening to sell bottled beers.

 

Beakers cocktail bar

 

There was a sekt and wine bar, food trucks, a stall selling T-shirts and bags, and a couple of bizarre attractions for kids.  In one, kids queued to get strapped into a winch suspended from a crane, then had to try building a tower from 'Club Mate' crates.  As the tower grew, the kid would get winched higher into the air and crates would be passed up to her or him on the end of a pole.  As soon as the tower collapsed, the kid would be let down and the next in line would have a go.  This went on until nightfall when the winch was replaced by a spotlit mirror ball which scattered a starry pattern of light over the street and houses.

 

A climbing 'attraction'

 

 

A very impressive crate tower 

The neighbourhood turned out in force to dance, sit on sofas or the ground, eat and drink or generally just mill around.  Kids and adults alike joined in the dancing and the atmosphere remained convivial despite the volumes of alcohol being consumed. We looked in for an hour at around five o’clock, when it was still fairly low-key, and sampled a mojito from Beakers’ cocktail bar, then went back later to listen to the bands for the last couple of hours.

 

                      Either an imaginative bit of decoration or a novel way of drying the smalls

 

 

One of the early bands setting up

Strassenfest regulars ‘Auge Blau’ were a favourite with the locals – a sort of cross between Madness and The Darts.  The lead singer spent the duration of one song launching paper planes into the crowd, and another had an accompanying ‘hand’ routine that everyone performed enthusiastically.

The strassenfest is an annual event.  There is great co-operation from the locals who have live music blasting right below their windows, and from the authorities (though the police keep a watchful eye from the sidelines).  Compared with the UK’s dismal ‘royal jubilee’ street parties, this was a joyous affair with a real community feeling.

 

Light reflecting from the mirror ball onto nearby buildings

 

The weather could have been kinder – the skies were extremely dark all day – but it remained reasonably warm and at least the rain stayed away.