May 1st 2015

A tad late but I did take some photo's of the May 1st events this year. Kreuzberg was packed with parties, clubs, cafes, street concerts and food all making for an amazing atmosphere. See previous posts for more details,  2011 here, 2012 here and 2014 here.

A few people showed up.

BBQ (though some bars look like this on any given night thanks the smokes)

Anyone who was anyone was there.

A few more people showed up.

Sneaking a snog.

Hallo :)

 These four girls were part of a large group that photo bombed my camera and then ran off into the crowd. Very... photogenic.

Frank and Ollie both turned up in the same outfit, Ollie was not impressed.

Ciao for now
Andy

May 1st 2014

The 1st of May has come about again, right on schedule. I'm posting photos this time around for some of the new things I found. For those curious about the big party, check out the previous posts here and here.

general ambiance

 Crossing the street on a red signal, Das ist Verboten!

Ready for a climb but anxious.

  This was an amazing setup, a climbing event for kids. A trio of (I assume pro) climbers setup a climbing rope and harnesses on a tree at Marianenplatz. The idea was for kids to strap on the gear and then be challenged to stack beer crates while climbing the stack. Brillant idea and loads of safe fun. Not a chance it would fly anywhere in North America I suspect.

This girl did quite well.

The girl doing the climbing was really....really good, great balance.

However this girl was the champ, they ran out of crates to hand up.

Out of crates, she just leaned back to great applause.

  Great fun to watch each tower crumble and all smiles as each kid was lowered to the grass.

AJ

A few faces in the crowd

Just a few folks in the crowd from this years May Day party on Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg

To each their own.

Like it says, Berlin Hustles Harder.

Caio for now
Andy

May Day 2012

This years May 1st was relatively peaceful, certainly it was on Oranienstrasse anyway. It was about 8 square blocks of closed roads with live music in the street. Great vibe and atmosphere. Local store owners setup temporary bar's out front of their stores, beer or mixed drinks for a fairly decent price. To those in Vancouver, dream on....

Wow, once again Berlin shows how a street party should happen. More photo's at the Flickr site.

Tschüss

May 1st in Berlin

So I went from moving into my place one day to a massive street party the next day. May 1st in Berlin is amazing, not to be missed.

Oranienstrasse in the heart of TRUE Kreuzberg. This street is awesome, a great collection of bars, cafe's, turkish cafe's and clubs, what Bergmann used to be I think. Many streets around this whole sector were closed to traffic and turned into a huge outdoor club. The smoke is either kabap shops cooking on bbq's in the street or residents doing the same to make a few bucks or bars with smoke machines and pulsing beats.

These stages are setup on every other intersection with many different kinds of bands. These guys were very heavy death metal.

This bar/cafe was an awesome quiet spot to stop and enjoy a beer and doodle in the sketchbook just 2 days before. Today they have huge amps and speakers with a DJ spinning club beats to a crowd who were very much into it!

Right above all that action.

Pink elephants, unicorns its all good here, a bit crowded though.

  So, no this isn't the traditional May day riot event nor even anything to do with the meaning of the day. This massive street party was (apparently) cooked up by the local government and police, I think in an attempt to calm the streets from violent ideas and to make it a party instead. I heard many distant booms and bangs the night before and there were armies of police vans lining the streets EVERYWHERE on the way to this party. Clearly something happened somewhere but I didn't find it.

Andy