Post written by Dominik, a United Planet team member.

Every year on Pentecost weekend, the city of Berlin comes alive for the Carnival of Cultures. Over 1.5 million Berliners take to the streets to enjoy this multicultural carnival. The celebration includes a procession of 4500 people representing over 70 countries through both music and dance performances. On the green field at the Blucherplatz, one can see acrobats, wizards, tightrope and stilt walkers as well as percussionists and curiosity marketers. Over 950 bands play on four stages throughout the weekend. The city also puts on a street festival, where people sell typical food and art from all over the world at over 380 booths.

Pictures taken by Artie, Schockwellenreiter and Blogging Dagger, Flickr

After the Berlin wall was torn down in 1989 many artists and people from places all over the world came to the city to live and work here. Then, in 1996, the idea for the first Carnival of Cultures was born. The carnival was created to show visitors and citizens alike, just how cosmopolitan, multicultural and passionate this city really is.

The carnival has become a big family attraction, complete with picnics and child performers. A few years ago, the organizers added a children’s carnival, where kids can demonstrate their talent and artistic skills to festival-goers. It’s a great time to be in Berlin and witness its multiculturalism!

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Explore posts in the same categories: Europe, Festival, Foreign Culture, Latin America, local culture, Local festival, Team Stories, travel, United Planet, volunteer abroad
Tags: Berlin, Berlin wall, Blucherplatz, Carnival of Cultures, dance performances, Multicultural, music, procession

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 10:27 am and is filed under Europe, Festival, Foreign Culture, Latin America, local culture, Local festival, Team Stories, travel, United Planet, volunteer abroad. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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