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Berlin's calendar is full of many events throughout the year, with annual fairs, exhibitions, festivals, including the International Film Festival Berlin, the second largest in the world, many parties and a wide range of concerts.
Leading magazines detailing upcoming events and happenings are regularly published and they contain the latest listings of events throughout this lively city and are aimed specifically at tourists and visitors. These magazines are a useful source for shopping, dining and entertainment - providing you with a huge choice of things to see and do in Berlin.
Carnival of Cultures
(Pentecost weekend, June)
Deeply ingrained in the German psyche is the belief that culture equals national culture. No surprise then that the German approach to immigration has been a bit schizophrenic - as an foreigner you have two options either keep to yourself with a view to going home or you integrate completely with a view to becoming a real German. Anything inbetween would open the specter of multiculturalism....
Reality check: 1 in 7 Berliners is a foreigner so the city is unavoidably multicultural. The Karneval der Kulturen is a celebration of the city´s ethnic diversity and its growth over the past 3 years indicates a welcome shift from the culture = nation mindset described above.
The Karneval is Berlin's most colourful and vivacious festival, taking place every year in June over the Whitsun weekend. Thousands of representatives from over 70 cultures don their glad rags and dance along the streets of Kreuzberg in a joyous celebration of Berlin's multi-ethnicity. Four purpose-built stages host all kinds of performances, the main stage is at Blücherplatz, the children's stage at Mariannenplatz.
Christopher Street Day
Arguably the best of Berlin's rash of summer street parades, Christopher Street Day commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots on Christopher St in New York which sparked off the modern gay liberation movement. Upwards of 70 wagons and accompanying paraders prance, pose and sashay their way from the Kurfürstendamm to Tiergarten, finishing with a grand circle around the Victory Column , Berlin's favourite phallic symbol and namesake of the local gay magazine. The champagne spurts from the majority of the floats (available also to bystanders for an appropriate fee), cooling down the mass of sexually-charged sweating dancers. Political slogans alternate with fantastic costumes, and the diversity of the spectators reflects the success of the movement. A great day out for the whole family.
Love Parade
Once a year on a given Saturday in early July a large number of the world's party-goers gather to celebrate the now legendary Love Parade. Having moved to Strasse des 17. Juni, this street party, which started in 1989 on the Ku'damm as demonstration for love, has ballooned into the biggest Techno/Dance party in the world, attracting hedonists from all corners of the earth. Excessive amounts of bare flesh are exposed as the parade, comprising of approximately 1 million fun seekers (all with their own whistles) dancing on the back of lorries (some 250 in all) and on the street, makes its way up and down Strasse des 17. Juni and round the Großer Stern at the Victory Column in the middle of Tiergarten. Real techno fans should prepare to be disappointed as the music tends towards the mainstream-chart-house end of the market. Despite this, the ethos of the event has escalated so much that fledgling Love Parades have been hatched in Austria and England.
Accompanied every year by a cringingly cosmic motto (two such examples being "One World, One Love Parade" and "Join the Love Republic"), the Berlin parade has gradually mutated into a highly commercialised circus as each of its "partners" succeed in only blocking sunlight with their logo-emblazoned balloons. Thankfully, all such things must come to an end - 2001's event was the first totally commercial Love Parade (the Berlin Senate finally refused to accept the goings-on as a political demonstration) and it appears to have been the straw that broke the camel's back, leaving everybody with a bad taste in their mouths. As the organisers sit down at the negotiating table with city officials to ensure the longevity of Berlin's most lucrative event, rumours are spreading round the rest of the sentient world that the 2001 T-shirt may, shortly, become a collectors item.
Sounds like Home (July - Aug)
In Summer from June through August the circus tent of the Tempodrom plays host to a series of concerts called "Heimatklänge". This festival of world music presents a range of music from a different country or region each year. The idea behind Heimatklänge is to present bands which are active in their home country. The result is musical selection which attempts to go beyond the sterotypes of the world music genre. The theme for the 2001 series is Soul 2 Soul: Afrika in Amerika - Amerika in Afrika. The action (which is practically free) takes place Wednesday to Saturday from 9.30pm and Sundays from 4pm.
German-American Festival
(Jul - Aug)
A regular event since 1961, Berlin´s German-American Festival is something like a cross between Disneyland and a country fair. Attractions include carnival rides, American style food and a reconstruction wild west town. Every Saturday and Sunday during the festival visitors will be treated to a rodeo complete with Bull Wrestling, Steer Roping and of course the obligatory Bucking Bronco.
Internationales Stadionfest - ISTAF (late August)
No longer the climax of the prestigious, but discontinued, Golden Four athletics series, the Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF) in the Olympic Stadium is still, nevertheless, the seventh and final meeting on the IAAF Golden League calendar. Designed to unify the elite individual meetings held in Europe, the Golden League always attracts the top names in track and field to fight it out for some big prize money. Any athlete who can win their discipline at five of the seven Meetings can win the jackpot and claim their share of 50kg of gold ingots.
Berlin Marathon
(Late September)
Ever run 42 kilometers? In two hours? If you have, or if you just want to see someone's face after they've done it, the Berlin Marathon might be for you. Each year in September almost thirty thousand runners start at the Schloß Charlottenburg on the Straße der 17 Juni, running through ten different Berlin Berzirks before they finally break through the finish line on the Kurfurstendamm. This is Germany's biggest and fastest marathon--last year contestants came from 73 different countries. Of course, you don't have to be a record holder to join in on the action. For runners, the finish line closes at 3:00--seven hours after the starting gun. If you still need more time, you can join the power walkers' competition, which starts an hour earlier and gives you until 6:00 to pant your way down the home stretch. The race also includes a wheelchair competition, and a speed skating competition for rollerbladers. Their website has more information in English, downloadable registration forms, and even access to live coverage of the race on the big day.
Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival
(Feb)
The Berlinale takes place every February, with screenings held in various cinemas located citywide. All details are widely advertised in the press and by the festival organisers in the weeks prior to the event.
Berlin's biggest annual event before anybody had heard of the Love Parade, the Berlinale is the third largest film festival in Europe. Although aimed mostly at industry professionals, that doesn't stop the whole city going film-mad for two weeks in February. Nothing in Berlin is complete without controversy, and the Berlinale is no exception. Contentious points for the 2001 Berlinale included the big name no-shows (namely Gus Van Sant, Julianne Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Emma Thompson and Johnny Depp), and the usual gripes at Festival head Moritz de Handeln´s program of safely commercial films that served in many cases as a convenient forum for films being released soon or concurrently in German cinemas. And no Berlinale is complete without the critics´ cries of too few German films - this year´s only competition entry, by a Greek-German director and about a German-American marriage, could not even claim full citizenship. So maybe it is a little too Hollywood and then Hollywood doesn't even show up. But many Berliners see that as all the more fun for the locals. With bigger theatres, more tickets, less glitz and fewer scenesters than Sundance or Cannes, the Berlinale is truly a festival for all of Berlin - that is, for anyone with enough patience to endure the ticket queues.
The top award, the Golden Bear, went to Patrice Chéreau´s Intimacy, a film that puzzled American critics for its graphic depiction of sex without glamour but was widely acclaimed by most European critics for, ironically enough, the very same reason. The lead actress, Kerry Fox, won the Silver Berlin Bear for the Best Actress and Benicio del Toro took the Best Actor award for his role in Oscar-favored Traffic by Steven Soderbergh. In addition to a wildly popular Fritz Lang tribute and an homage to Kirk Douglas, other surprise hits were the batch of Berlin films (Berlin is in Germany, Berlin Babylon, The Legend of Potsdamer Platz, The Beautiful Day) and the selection chosen by de Handeln, whose contract as festival was terminated early in a stunning and highly contentious move by the festival´s board of directors. Many hope that a new director means a more daring program for 2002, but others fear that a less commercial festival will be a less profitable one and that less Hollywood means less visibility.
Concerts are given in the Matthias Church, in the lovely Castle District of Buda. June through August. In addition, Budapest's largest church, St. Stephen's Basilica, also hosts concerts outside the front doors. If you don't care about sitting, you can listen for free. July through August.
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