835th anniversary
1.5 million visitors to the sunny harbor birthday
With tugboat ballet and paint bombs: the port of Hamburg is celebrating its birthday. photo
© Georg Wendt/dpa
This year’s Hamburg port anniversary attracted visitors with an extra day and, for northern German standards, exceptionally good weather. At the end of the big party there is the exit parade.
An extra-long party for the 835th birthday: Hamburg celebrated its port with a four-day folk festival on Ascension Day weekend. The hamburger went with a blue sky and only a few clouds Port birthday over.
According to organizers, 1.5 million people attended the maritime festival. According to police reports, the celebration on the last day also went off without any major incidents.
Around 250 large and small ships were part of the celebrations, many of which entered the harbor in the traditional entry parade on Thursday. Visitors should have one last chance to admire the ships during the big departure parade.
During the “Open Ship” campaign, ship lovers were also able to view many of the tall ships, tugs and emergency boats. On land there was also a colorful harbor mile between the jetties and Baumwall.
Musicals and All Colors on a floating stage
A new attraction this year was a pontoon stage pulled by tugs that stopped in front of the jetties on Friday and Saturday evenings. The 90 by 30 meter stage structure was specially delivered from Rotterdam.
At the music show “Elbe in Concert” on Friday, various artists played on the floating stage. The actors from Stage Entertainment gave an insight into their musical repertoire, and the men’s leisure choir “Die Hamburger Goldkehlchen”, which has cult status in the Hanseatic city, also performed. The headliner of the evening was the Hamburg band Scooter. Parallel to the big fireworks display, a visibly good-humored HP Baxxter thrilled the crowd. Not to be missed were songs like “How Much Is The Fish?” and “One (Always Hardcore).”
The DJ Alle Farben continued the program on the water stage on Saturday with pyrotechnics and lots of bass. During his DJ set, the cruise ship “Aida prima” was particularly highlighted: it was right behind the stage. A light show with drones that hovered over the stage and ship provided additional amazement. The luminous dots formed in the sky to form, among other things, the Hamburg state coat of arms and a picture of the Elbphilharmonie. The singer Kayef and his band played on the water stage as the opening act.
How old is that harbor really?
One of the traditional highlights of the festival was the tugboat ballet on Saturday. Thousands of people watched as the harbor tugs turned to music on the water in front of the jetties. Colorful smoke that was ignited on the tractors created special effects.
The partner country for the port anniversary this year was Latvia. With the “Latvia Festival” the Baltic country gave an insight into its traditions and culture. The Latvian Transport Minister Kaspars Briskens opened the festival together with Hamburg’s First Mayor Peter Tschentscher.
According to the organizers, the world’s largest harbor festival coincided with Ascension Day weekend this year and therefore took place over four days.
The harbor is actually older than 835 years. Experts believe it has existed at least since the early sixth century. On May 7, 1189, the people of Hamburg are said to have been given a duty-free trip out of the Elbe by decree. This date is now used as the starting point for the celebrations.